08 Dec 2022

A Ministry of Health official has enumerated nutrition challenges faced by day care centres and pre-schools.

  Speaking at a ministry food safety workshop on Tuesday, Ms Onalenna Ntshebe said the challenges included high consumption of processed foods, poor feeding practices encompassing low diversity and frequency as well as sharing of supplementary food rations.

  Ms Ntshebe, who is the ministry’s Nutrition and Food Control Division chief health officer, said good nutrition was the foundation of child survival and development.

   Children needed nutrients found in healthy foods and drinks to grow, she said.

Ms Ntshebe said good nutrition was crucial to brain growth and development, especially in a child’s first few years.

  Another speaker, community health service advisor, Mr Samuel Kolane encouraged day care facility owners, relevant government departments and regulators as well as parents to ensure food safety at young children’s institutions.

He implored management of such institutions to join hands with government to improve the health and wellbeing of young children by reducing their risk and exposure to contaminated food.

Food safety, he said, involved activities such as handling, preparation and storage to reduce the risk of contracting foodborne illnesses.

Mr Kolane said foodborne illnesses in children were particularly dangerous often causing either vomiting, diarrhoea or both.

“In severe cases this may result in fatalities due to rapid loss of bodily fluids due to dehydration and complications arising from the infection. Repeated bouts of infections in children under the age of five years negatively affect nutritional status and can also permanently affect cognitive and physical development,” he said.

Mr Kolane explained that foodborne illnesses were preventable as the main cause was consumption of contaminated food.

To strengthen the level of commitment on food safety, Mr Kolane said the ministry, in collaboration with that of local government and rural development, was in the process of running food handlers training workshops for day care centres in the Serowe, Palapye and Mahalapye region.

The workshops would be rolled out nationwide, he said.

Representing the Food Safety and Quality Management Unit, Ms Esther Rugara said it was time Botswana put in place a food safety policy.

She also recommended continuous training of day care facilities food handlers as well as to keep staff updated on food safety.

Ms Rugara also said institutions should demand regular inspection of their food facilities by district councils. Ends