St. Kitts Health officers close Chinese Supermarket for 2 days

By Caribbean Medical News Staff
Officers of the St Kitts Environmental Health Department pounced on a Chinese supermarket, which is located on Wellington Road between Lozack Road and Park Street and ordered its closure until the owners meet the Health department’s operational benchmarks.
According to reports, the well-populated Supermarket which sells food stuff and other items was being investigated by health officials. The findings of the officers revealed that the owners were in breach certain health standards and were operating under insanitary conditions. A source from the Environmental Health Department revealed that a section of the Supermarket was kept in a very dirty state and was infested with flies, roaches and rats.
Federation’s Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr. Patrick Martin confirmed the information.
One of the Supermarket’s patrons said, “Since Monday afternoon when I came home from work I saw that the Chinese supermarket was closed. I had found it very strange because they normally open at 7:00 in the morning and close by 10 o’clock in the night. I enquired and found out that people from the Health Department visited them and ordered the owners to close the supermarket because they were operating under conditions that were not conducive to health standards.”
In response to a comment, Dr Martin said that if there was any violation of the Public Health Act, a food-handling outlet could be closed summarily. He said, “Any institution, once they are at fault the Environmental Health Officers has the power under the Public Health Act to close them down. That is standard throughout the Caribbean.”
Dr Martin also expressed concerns about food poisoning and affirmed that there are on-going inspections of all food outlets. These include: hotels, restaurants, sidewalk cafes and anyone who generally sells food.