No environmental health practitioner visits at our shops, owners claim
Tshwane is expected to conduct quarterly food inspection at shops to avoid expired food being sold to residents.
Two shop owners in the Pretoria CBD told Rekord that ever since they opened their shops no officials have ever visited their premises to check their papers.
The need for proper inspections was in the spotlight recently after two children died in Soweto earlier in the week after allegedly eating biscuits at a local spaza shop. The community in the area accused the shop owner of selling expired and contaminated food.
Metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said the municipality has 85 permanent and 10 contracted environmental health practitioners at its disposal to conduct inspections at local shops and buildings in and around the city.
“These EHP personnel are responsible for visiting the food premises, according to regulation 638 of 2018. These include places like spaza shops,” said Mashigo.
He said to make sure that buildings and shops adhered to environmental and health standards, EHPs were required to conduct inspections once per quarter at high-health risk premises.
“For low-health risk premises, an inspection needs to be done once per annum. The EHPs of the City of Tshwane adhere to these legislative norms and standards as they relate only to known formal and informal premises,” added Mashigo.
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