Introduction:
Pursuant to the Food Hygiene Regulations 2009, it is mandatory for each owner and occupier of food manufacturing premisses to be prepare and established a Food Safety Assurance Programme. This is a system of organised pratices that is documented and give the assurances that consumption of any of specific type of food will not be harmful to the consumer. Among the Food Safery Assurance Programmes that have been introduced to premises involved in the manufacturing of food are Good Manufacturing Pratice(GMP), Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) and ISO 22000.
However, food manufacturing premises, particually small and medium enterprises (SMEs) find it rather difficult to fufill the Food Safety Assurance Pragrammes. In relation thereto, the Ministry Of Health has introduced a scheme that is easily achievable and that fufill the minimum requirement of the Food Hygiene Regulations 2009, namely the Food Saferty is the Responsibility to the industry (MeSTI) Certification Scheme.
Definition:
A minimum Food Safety Assurance Programme to control processing operations in food manufacturing premises.
Criteria Of Application:
- Must be registered with the Ministry Of Health through food premises registration.
- Must be registered with the Companies Commission of Malaysia;
- The premies must be licensed by the local authority
Validity Period:
The validity period of MeSTI certification is 3 years.
Core Elements of MeSTI:
1. Design and facilities
2. Personnel (Food Handler)
3. Training
4. Maintenance, cleaning and sanitation
5. Raw ingredient control
6. Process control
7. Packaging control
8. Storage control
9. Transportation and distribution control
10. Traceability
