Boston Jerk remains closed as health concerns linger
Published:Friday | October 11, 2024 | 12:10 AMGareth Davis Sr/Gleaner Writer
BOSTON, Portland:
There is still no clarity on when the internationally renowned Boston Jerk Centre in Portland will reopen following its closure last month as a resulr of serious regulatory breaches and health concerns.
During the monthly meeting of the Portland Municipal Corporation on Thursday, Dr Sharon Lewis, the chief medical officer for the parish, highlighted that public health inspectors are closely monitoring the popular eatery. She emphasised that interventions and inspections are ongoing.
“The Portland Health Department monitors the operations of food-handling establishments. This monitoring is done to ensure compliance with the relevant regulations under the Public Health Act,” said Lewis.
She explained that Boston Jerk Centre has faced ongoing issues over the years, necessitating multiple interventions. While improvements were noted following these interventions, they proved to be shortlived.
Lewis reported that during monitoring earlier this year, compliance with regulations had decreased, revealing several significant breaches.
“The breaches varied among different stalls, but overall, some of them included lack of food handler’s permits for the vendors, ill-equipped or malfunctioning handwashing stations at some stalls, food-contact surfaces unsuitable for food preparation, improper food practices, solid-waste disposal and management issues, and unclean surroundings,” she added.
On October 4, a reassessment of the first three food stalls that were ordered closed was conducted, but many breaches remained unresolved. In fact, Lewis said that 47-70 per cent of the violations persisted across the different jerk stalls, which is why the centre remained closed.
“Despite the closure, we continue to actively engage the jerk vendors to remind them of the requirements under the regulations to facilitate their reopening. Additionally, we engaged them, along with [representatives from] other governmental and non-governmental organisations, on September 20 with a view to arrange support for the vendors to improve their food-handling practices, the management of the infrastructure from which they operate their businesses, and the cleanliness and aesthetics of the venue,” the chief medical officer said.
The Boston Jerk Centre was ordered to close three food stalls on September 6 due to compliance breaches, and a fourth stall was shut down a week later for failing to meet minimum public-health standards.