Food van operations to be reviewed |28 July 2022
(L to r) PS Morgan, CEO Appoo and Mr Denis during the meeting with the press (Photo: Louis Toussaint)
A new policy to review and better regulate the operations of food vans in the country, will soon be drafted but in the meantime people engaged in this business are being encouraged to address different operational issues brought to their attention by the concerned authorities.
During a meeting with the press last Thursday the principal secretary for lands Murielle Morgan, the chief executive of Enterprise Seychelles Agency (ESA) Angelique Appoo and public health officer from the Food Control Unit of the Public Health Services Steve Denis said they have completed a report following a survey on the operations of food vans. The survey was conducted between March 31 and May 5.
This was done in collaboration with the Seychelles Planning Authority, lands department, Seychelles Licensing Authority (SLA), Public Health Authority (PHA), the department of environment, the Road Transport Commission, the Seychelles Land Transport Agency (SLTA) and the district administration offices.
Following the report, a committee is being set up to work on the new policy.
The survey has found that there are altogether 82 licensed food vans 44 are operational from which four are based on Praslin while the remaining others are all scattered on Mahe.
Ms Appoo noted that the survey found that 34 of these food vans met the license criteria set by SLA, 27 of them met the health criteria while 15 of them had different issues on which the PHA made recommendations for the operators to improve on.
She said in total, 49 food vans had a lease agreement while five did not.
For his part Mr Denis said the problems they are encountering with the food van operators varied. “Many food handlers in the vans are not respecting the conditions of their license, they do not have a Certificate of Fitness, they are preparing heavy meals in the van which they should not.”
Mr Denis explained that heavy meals were supposed to be prepared in a catering kitchen and could then be transported to the food van to be sold. Certain food vans are not being cleaned regularly and some even had food remains and other debris in their vicinity. He noted that all food vans should be cleaned thoroughly at the close of business each day instead of on a weekly basis.
With regard to these issues, Mr Denis said they will follow verbal advice to the operators with a standard letter to the operators and follow-up visits will also be carried out.
Ms Morgan noted that the survey indicated that the majority of food vans in the country are located on state land with only a minority of about 25% which are situated on private properties.
“We do not consider this a bad thing. In fact, we take this an encouraging sign. The government does not have enough land to cater for everything,” she said noting that more people who own private land in a suitable location are encouraged to assist operators of food vans thus encouraging public-private partnership.
She also reminded businesses that any request for government land to place a food van on will not be processed by the land department but will be directed to ESA.
Through the survey, four districts where new food vans can be placed were identified and these are Au Cap, Anse Boileau, Glacis and Perseverance.
Ms Appoo disclosed that there are currently 73 food van applications which are pending, but that there are only 16 places available.
She said ESA is proposing to re-establish the food vending committee which was previously operating under Public Health, so they can assess and review the many pending applications. They will also, together with stakeholders, discuss whether all food vans should be mobile or remain stationed in one place.
Sylia Ah-Time
