Food safety legal issues in home-based food business

Abstract

Food safety in home-based food business play an important role in preventing foodborne disease in the community. However, poor hygiene standards of preparation, process and food serving among the home-based food business is endangering the health of consumers. The aims of this study are to are to examine the food safety issues in the home-based food business in the legal perspective and secondly is to propose amendment to food safety legislations for home-based food business in Malaysia. This research will employ qualitative analysis by way of semi-structured interviews with officers from the Food Safety and Quality Division Ministry of Health Malaysia and home-based food business owners to obtain their perspectives on the food safety legislations. It is found that issues surrounding food safety regulations on home-based food business in Malaysia are firstly on the absence of the regulations include the category of home-kitchen as one of which has resulted home-based food business operators to be excluded from the food safety standard of procedure. Secondly, home-based food business owners are reluctant to register their business on the ground to save cost in business. It is suggested to include the category of home-based food business in the regulations and to organise awareness campaign for business owners to spread awareness on importance of business registration and food safety practice in their business. Keywords: Home-based Food Business, Food Safety, Food, Disease, Food Handlers.