Sanidad: Preserving the Health of the Ateneo Community through Global Trends in Food Safety and Quality Management
On October 26, a total of 65 participants— food business operators, cafeteria coordinators, food handlers and student owners—gathered at SOM 111 for a seminar on food safety.
Organized by the Food Safety and Quality Assurance Office (OFSQA), the theme for this one-day seminar “Sanidad” was inspired from a catalogue in 1923 (Intramuros) stating that “all drinking water is filtered and treated by means of violet ray sterilizer, and submitted to frequent analysis."
The Ateneo, since the early times, until now, “has taken every possible precaution to preserve the health of the Ateneo community”. Therefore, this seminar series which included four different topics was facilitated to the food business operators and food handlers as an opportunity to relay the importance of food and water safety, especially with the emergence of digital technology and globalization and its impact in the Food Industry.
Dr. Maria Victoria T. Cortez, Vice President for Administration and Human Resources (VP-AHR) started the program with a keynote speech and encouraged the food businesses to “cultivate good practices to achieve a food safety culture and pro-active approach in preventing foodborne illnesses on campus”. Additionally, Dr. Cortez advised the participants to support each other and the OFSQA in developing mechanisms for the harmonization of food safety policies and standards”.
To facilitate the seminar, OFSQA partnered with the School of Food Science and Technology of the Philippine Women’s University and the Kalinisan Chemicals Corporation, a company that provides sanitation solutions to food, beverage and institutional industries. Featured speakers were Engr. Lyle Melad, Clarissa Tila, Cristina R. Almonte, Maria Kristina l. Ondillo and Charmaine Almonte.
Engr. Lyle Melad provided a background on food safety challenges in e-commerce and stressed the importance of education and regulation. The food businesses engaged in digital world of food marketing and delivery was also reminded to implement the 5Ts- time and temperature, tamper-proof, traceability and training.”
Clarissa Tila focused on the challenges and issues in food safety implementation. “Food safety is a global concern,” she said. In the last 13 years, food borne diseases have increased so it is vital to ensure consistency in training and develop a proactive stance to attain effective food safety implementation”.
This was further discussed by Cristina Almonte. The Food Safety Act of the Philippines (RA 10611) does not only strengthen the regulatory system but also protects consumer health, she said. Almonte also stressed the effect of compliance to food safety standards: it minimizes occurrence of customer complaints.''
Maria Kristina Ondillo, on the other hand, talked about the various ways of tamper-proofing food. According to her, food protection is the result of proper food safety and food defense.
Charmaine Almonte’s topic was on basic safe food handling. “It is the duty of everyone working on the food business to ensure that the food served to customers are safe to eat,” she said.
Ms. Shella ef-em Corpuz-Montinola, OFSQA Head gave a closing remark and inspired everyone to continue enhancing their good hygienic practices (GHPs) program because after all, “Food safety management is a never-ending journey”.
