Safe Food Storage During Hurricane Melissa

Health Promotion and Education Officer for Westmoreland, Gerald Miller, is reminding residents to pay keen attention to food-safety practices as the parish braces for the effects of Hurricane Melissa.

“In times like these, it’s your food safety that becomes very important because the possibility exists that we might have power outages,” he said in an interview with JIS News.

Mr. Miller explained that when power is lost “we can have situations where food safety becomes compromised because of the whole issue of storage, how the food is stored, and the possibility of bacterial growth”.

He advised residents to take precautionary measures to protect their food supply.

“We are reminding persons that they must not store food with chemicals… and they must avoid food from dented or damaged tins,” he noted.

Mr. Miller also encouraged householders to “keep food in a dry and cool place and store sugar, flour, rice, and crackers in original packages or tightly closed containers.”

He further advised persons to have an emergency bag with canned and dry food items for evacuation.

Meanwhile, Mr. Miller said that the public health team has been conducting visits to emergency shelters to ensure the well-being of residents.

“We have been checking the facilities, ensuring that persons are practising good personal hygiene,” he said, noting that the health team has been stressing the importance of personal hygiene and the sanitising of hands.

“Our doctors have been doing their checks on patients who have conditions that require monitoring such as diabetes, hypertension, [and] other respiratory conditions,” he informed.