2006 Food and Drugs lab tests find contamination, quality control deficiencies in foods and pharmaceuticals
Most drinking water deemed microbiologically unsatisfactory
Stabroek News
March 2, 2007
Samples of foods and water on which tests were conducted by the Food and Drug Department during 2006 were found to contain various levels of contamination while quality control deficiencies were detected in all categories of pharmaceuticals tested by the department.
Stabreok Business has learnt that the Department's microbiology laboratory found the food-borne diseases salmonella and e.coli in samples of food taken from various food service establishments in the country while the eight categories of pharmaceuticals tested last year including antri-retroviral, anti-epilepsy, anti-hypertensive and anti-tuberculosis drugs all manifested varying degrees of deficiency in quality control practices during the manufacturing process. The highest levels of quality control infraction were detected in the manufacture of anti-hypertensive and anti-tuberculosis drugs.
Tests on samples of drinking water conducted by the Food and Drug Department last year have provided results that suggest that the overall quality of potable water is unsatisfactory. Of the 33 samples of drinking water submitted to the Department from Region Three last year only 5 were found to be satisfactory while of the 120 samples submitted from Region Four only 21 were found to be satisfactory. During last year the Department conducted tests on twenty samples of water from Region Five of which only eight were deemed satisfactory while 3 of the `12 samples submitted by Region Six were passed as satisfactory.
Six of the seventeen samples submitted by Region Seven were found to be satisfactory, Regions Eight and Nine submitted 6 and 21 water samples, respectively, none of which were passed as satisfactory while only 17 of the 67 water samples tested from Region Ten were found to be satisfactory.
Tests were also conducted on water samples taken from the Water Treatment Plant and Seafood Processing Plants. In the former case 75 of 120 samples were categorized as satisfactory while in the latter case 41 of 88 samples were passed as satisfactory. Meanwhile, the Food and Drugs' evaluation of tests carried out on water during last year found that 73 per cent of ice samples tested were microbiologically unsatisfactory and 83 per cent of water samples from seafood processing plants was microbiologically unsatisfactory. Of the total water samples tested from various sources across the country 72 per cent were found to be microbiologically unsatisfactory.