Inspectors close another Maputo restaurant

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Inspectors close another Maputo restaurant

7:14 CAT | 24 Feb 2017

O País

The Mozambican government’s National Inspectorate of Economic Activities (INAE) has ordered the closure of another Maputo restaurant and pastry shop, the Marinha, reports Thursday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”.

The INAE general inspector, Mari Freitas, said INAE had received complaints from clients, including that they had found dead cockroaches in the meals they were eating, while live cockroaches were scurrying around the tables.

The INAE inspectors found that the bathrooms in the restaurant were a threat to public health, and that the establishment’s baking section worked under inhuman conditions, without any air conditioning.

“When we arrived, the workers were all sweating, because there was no ventilation”, said Freitas.

This year, about a dozen restaurants and bakeries have been closed in Maputo. Some have been allowed to re-open after obeying INAE instructions for improved cleanliness and hygiene, but others remain closed.

Cited in the independent daily “O Pais”, the head of the environmental health department, in the Ministry of Health, Ana Cardoso, criticized the frequency with which establishments that sell food disregard basic rules of hygiene.

“Such establishments should control pests through fumigation, to avoid the proliferation of cockroaches”, she said. “If necessary they must take measures to eliminate rats. They must have sewage and garbage treatment systems, because these are all aspects that could contaminate foodstuffs and cause health problems”.

Freitas told the paper that about 90 per cent of the irregularities INAE had discovered in recent months concern hygiene and cleanliness. She added that, even in four or five star hotels, where conditions for the public may appear excellent, the hotel workers are forced to use bathrooms that are in shocking condition.

She said that inspections have been taking place since 2009, but without much publicity. Freitas has broken with this pattern, and is making sure that the work of INAE is covered in the media. There would now be zero tolerance for poor hygiene.

“At the end of the day, we are all consumers”, she said. “Even the businessman who does not respect rules of hygiene and cleanliness will want to buy products in other establishments”.

Source: AIM