85 dirty school canteens ordered to close - Dr Subramaniam

A total of 85 school canteens were ordered to close due to a lack of hygiene and for contravening Section 11 of the Food Act 1983 between January and May this year, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam announced today. He said this was following the inspection and audit of 6,168 school canteens nationwide by the Health Ministry's Food Safety and Quality Division. "In 2012, we inspected 8,288 school canteens and ordered 112 of them to close for the same reason," he told a press conference here today. He said the Health Ministry and Education Ministry had set up a Safety, Health and Cleanliness Committee aimed at monitoring the cleanliness of school canteens to reduce food poisoning and to improve their level of hygiene. He said the public can also report dirty eateries and unhygienic handling of food to the State Health Department, nearest Health Office or through http://fsq.moh.gov.my so that immediate action can be taken. On a separate development, he expressed disappointment over the high number of weekly dengue cases recorded at more than 600, noting that it was much higher than last year's weekly cases of between 300 and 400. "Between January to July 23 this year, 14,931 cases were recorded compared to 12,910 for the same period last year. And there were 29 deaths in contrast to 25 during that time," he said. Dr Subramaniam said four hotspots had been identified in Selangor where the dengue epidemic was prolonged namely Petaling Jaya Selatan (PJS) 10 Kondo Ridzuan, PJS 8 Mentari Court 1 (Blocks A,B,C,D), PJS 8 Mentari Court 2 (Blocks E,F & G) and Saujana Puchong SP7. "The 'ops gempur aedes' which was started on July 8 is still being carried out throughout the country. So far 95,970 premises have been inspected and 929 compounds issued," he said.