Report finds cooked food at roadside markets not safe to eat

By PISAI GUMAR
THREE main roadside markets that sell cooked foods along the highway in Wampar, Morobe, have been deemed unhygienic and unsafe, posing health risks to the travelling public.
Wampar council manager Joe Paru said a report conducted last year by district environmental health officer Ziruru Ososo identified several unhygienic practices.
The markets were Nadzab, 40-Mile and Dangke.
Health risks include unsafe food handling practices, lack of toilets and inadequate water supply and poor waste disposal methods.
The report said most vendors have their cooking ovens made of empty drums in front of market areas open to dust and other air pollutants.
Fast foods such as fried sausages, lamb flaps and bananas when cooked were left on cooking racks in the open for display, and are exposed to flies, dusts and contaminants.
“There is no proper food handling practices while nearby bushes are used as toilets which may result in the outbreak of such preventable sicknesses like diarrhoea, dysentery, typhoid and cholera.”
The Nadzab market has no water supply for women who sell vegetables and fruits to keep their produce fresh.
Ososo said in the report that solid waste generated from daily market activities keep piling up because there were no proper disposal facilities
She reported that all the markets did not meet Health regulations and the vendors were required to undergo proper food-handling trainings.
“An outbreak of any disease would be unstoppable if control measures to safeguard the health of travelling public are not taken into considerations due to poor food-handling practices” Ososo said in the report.