MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica — The St James Public Health Department is imploring consumers to be extra careful when purchasing meat during the Christmas season.

Addressing the monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation recently, acting chief public health inspector for the parish, Sherika Lewis, said shoppers should ensure that meats are purchased from a licensed butcher and are inspected and passed for consumption by the health department.

She went on to state that the Department has embarked on a meat hygiene enforcement drive to mitigate the sale of uninspected meat over the holiday period and beyond.

According to a release on Monday, the drive will target all the major supermarkets, meat shops and the meat market.

“With the Yuletide season, persons [may] be attempting to distribute, for sale, uninspected meat. So, we are going to be ensuring that we are doing our enforcement action to ensure that these meats that would be deemed unfit for human consumption are not continued in the food trade,” she said.

Meanwhile, Lewis noted that efforts are being made by the health department to get street vendors in sections of Montego Bay certified to sell food to members of the public.

She said a recently conducted one-night food vendor drive in the resort town revealed that several vendors were operating without a food handler’s permit. Consequently, Lewis informed that a training session was conducted to get vendors certified.

She noted that 25 vendors were trained and certified and issued valid permits, following the session held on November 24.

“During the drive, the team had engaged over 50 food vendors, but we have seen that less than 50 per cent of that number showed up for the training. We intend to conduct another training in February of next year,” she indicated.

Vendors are urged to participate in the exercise, “as our public health inspector will assist them in completing the training programme,” Lewis added.