Overview of critical food safety problems found in small and medium enterprises of the agro-processing and food service sectors in the Caribbean and possible strategies for finding solutions

Contaminated foods kill millions of people around the world each year. Here in the Caribbean, the exact number of persons who die annually from foodborne illnesses is unknown. SMEs in agro-processing and food service make up a large percentage of the players in the food sector of the region, and their practices are at times questionable. For these establishments, the critical food safety problems that stymie the food safety effort, include poor personal hygiene, inadequate cleaning and sanitizing practices, inefficient pest control, improper use of preservatives, unsatisfactory time/temperature relationships, inadequate training and inadequate infrastructure. Possible strategies to assist in solving these problems would involve updating and strengthening of current legislation, improved surveillance and monitoring, training of staff within the SMEs in issues relating to food safety management and production methods and outreach programmes on food safety that target the general public and school children. Integral to all of this is the sharing of ideas and information and the pooling of data from all of the countries of the region in an effort to accelerate the thrust toward the production of safe food.