The Department of Food Science and Technology of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has organised a two-day Food Hygiene certificate programme for food vendors in KNUST, Kumasi and interested individuals countrywide. The objective of the programme is to curb health-related problems like cholera, listeria, salmonella and others which are linked to the food the public handles, distributes, sells and consumes.
The training touched on why food hygiene and safety is important, what the law says about food hygiene, foodborne illness, how food becomes contaminated, food preservation, storage and temperature control and preventing contamination through the 4C’s – cross contamination, cleaning, chilling and cooking.
According to Dr. Herman Lutterrodt, lecturer at the Department and one of the facilitators, the programme has come to stay. He observed that it would be an annual programme and hoped that the Health Unit at the Estate Office of the University would make it mandatory for anyone who would want to sell on campus to go through the programme.
Dr. Lutterrodt remarked that there would be constant monitoring of vendors to make sure they practised what they had been taught to keep food and the environment clean. He stated that through this education, the Department would help to keep the university free from food-borne diseases.
Participants interviewed after the programme were overwhelmed to be educated on food-borne diseases they did not know about and hoped to constantly practise what had been taught. They were glad to have acquired a certificate from KNUST as an attestation that they had attended the Food Hygiene programme of the University.
Facilitators of the programme include Dr. Jacob K. Agbenorhevi who is also the Course Coordinator, Dr. Herman E. Lutterodt, Dr. Faustina D. Wireko-Manu and Prof. Ibok Oduro, all Lecturers in the Department of Food Science and Technology, KNUST.