By: Ugor Benedict
Behind the scenes of every movie are possible alarming discoveries. This is because we become concerned about the authenticity of the movie having realized the disparity between the actual movie and the process that led to its production. The same applies to food safety in cafeterias at the University of Ibadan. Behind the counters where food is purchased is the kitchen where it is produced. While food in cafes as students shortly call food stalls may appear attractive, aromatic, and delicious, the kitchen where this food is produced may be contrary.
Food is the third most important need after air and water, and only when it is safe can it nourish us for a healthy life. Unsafe foods are harmful to the health because they contribute to malnourishment, spread parasites and infection, and cause foodborne illnesses such as cholera, stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, nausea, and fatigue. Consuming contaminated food leads to food poisoning. In fact, unless food is safe, it cannot be called food!
Students in the University of Ibadan obtain food in various ways. They, sometimes, cook by themselves after purchasing food items from the market, a few make orders from external sources, and a sizeable number eat from cafeterias in the halls of residence. This shows that cafeterias are a focal point for obtaining food. But how safe is the food in cafeterias?
Cafeterias in the University of Ibadan are characterized by students flocking in and out. They stand by the counters to purchase food, which they eat in sheer confidence that it is safe. What matters, most times, is that the food is attractive, aromatic, and delicious. What happens behind the scenes, in the kitchen? Is the food properly handled? Is it properly cooked? Are the cooks adhering to food safety rules? Is the environment hygienic for eating? These questions and more loom and are hardly answered.
It is highly unfortunate that the issue of food safety in cafeterias is overlooked even though a majority of students obtain food from them. This trend must not continue because food is not only the greatest determinant of health and well-being, but a priority, even before academics. To see to it that food served to students is safe, nutritious, and hygienic is essential for promoting a healthy learning environment. This would encompass a range of practices, from sourcing the raw materials for food to proper preparation, to adhering to food safety rules and maintaining a healthy eating environment.
It is important to understand that cafeterias are not roadside food vendors but restaurants where you choose your food from a counter and take it to your table after paying for it. This implies that food safety must be ensured, the first step of which is ensuring that the raw materials are safe as the overall safety of the food begins from this point. For example, raw meat must be parasite-free and should not be from an animal that died from a disease. More so, vegetables must be fresh, and ingredients should not be deceptively tasty, yet harmful. Since these measures point to the source, the sources of raw materials for food served to students in cafeterias must be safe.
Proper handling of the food largely depends on safe practices in the kitchen. This includes the use of clean water and utensils and ensuring that the food is properly cooked and stored. Food safety rules also demand that cooks put on their aprons, gloves, and hairnets, wherever or whenever necessary, and that stale food should never be served to consumers.
More so, a healthy eating environment requires maintenance of the dining area by keeping the tables, chairs, and floors clean to minimize the risk of contamination; adequate ventilation and lighting of the dining area; getting rid of insects and pests, for example, houseflies, cockroaches and rats; and provision of dining equipment for hand washing and refuse disposal.
Considering the above steps to ensuring food safety, we are poised to wonder whether the cafeterias adhere to them. Another puzzle that follows is whether authorities and bodies, such as the Student Union leaders and JAJA Clinic health workers, who are supposed to regulate the safety of food in cafeterias, are performing their roles.
From the forefront of Queens Hall residence to the interiors of Awolowo Hall, one can justifiably argue that the safety of food in cafeterias is compromised in the University of Ibadan. The environment in some cafeterias harbours houseflies. Many times, the cooks go about without aprons, gloves, and hairnets. It is also observed that stale food or overnight food is, sometimes, served to students, and the quality of food in some cafeterias is alarmingly poor. In all these, what happens behind the scenes (that is, in the kitchen) remains a mirage of which no one can give an account of.
An inadvertent response to poor food safety in cafeterias by students is a preference for eating in some cafeterias, which they deem safer or better. But while the criteria for such choices include matters of food safety, they are largely influenced by the attractiveness, taste, and cost of the food, which is grossly misleading. This draws the need for a determinate method of accessing and regulating food safety in cafeterias. This can only be achieved by authorities tasked with regulating food safety and the two major bodies are the students’ union and JAJA.
Unfortunately, JAJA Clinic, the school’s healthcare facility and the central regulating body of activities relating to students’ health, has underperformed in its role of ensuring food safety in cafeterias. This is alarming given the fact that food is crucial to health and well-being, which JAJA as a health directorate is aware of. This is worsened by the fact that JAJA has failed to monitor or supervise food safety in cafeterias in its response to the ongoing cholera outbreak. To hit the nail on the head, JAJA must rise to its responsibility for ensuring food safety in cafeterias. It must play a key role in monitoring food from preparation to consumption by students, carrying out routine inspections of food, and making dietary recommendations. By promoting food safety in this way, the health outcomes of students will be greatly improved.
It is saddening that the Students’ Union have also failed in ensuring food safety in cafeterias. Perhaps, it is because food has been put on the list of trivial matters notwithstanding the fact that everyone goes about with food in their bellies. The Union is closest to regulating food safety because it has leaders in the halls of residences where these cafeterias are located. Therefore, the Union should institute a regulating body in each hall of residence to ensure the safety of food in cafeterias. Moreover, there should be a collaboration with the school healthcare facility Clinic for optimal results.
Food, unlike movies, cannot be risked to the behind-the-scene experience as the consequences could be devastating. Therefore, the lives of thousands of students, who obtain food from cafeterias, must be protected by ensuring that the food is safe. While the school healthcare center and the Students’ Union have a huge unplayed role to play, individuals must also be conscious of food safety when we eat in the cafeterias.
