T

he Jakarta administration has cooperated with the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) to decrease the occurrence of unsafe food being sold in food stores, restaurants and traditional markets as well as produced in small and medium enterprises.

Deputy head of the BPOM'€™s hazardous ingredients and food monitoring department, Suratmono, said during the signing ceremony at City Hall on Friday that Jakarta'€™s safe food rate was lower than the national average.

Suratmono said BPOM found that 17 percent of food sold around schools in Jakarta contained hazardous substances such as formaldehyde, borax and textile dyes while the national average was 10 percent.

'€œTwelve percent of the food we examined in Jakarta'€™s markets during Ramadhan did not meet the standards of healthy and safe food,'€ he said, adding that the examined food included tofu and fresh
noodles.

Suratmono said he hoped the cooperation could help reduce the number of hazardous foods in Jakarta by 3 percent.

The deputy head said the cooperation was essential as the agency lacked the human resources and funds to monitor markets and the food industry.

The cooperation ranges from disseminating information and education to residents through various platforms; recording the food business entities, including their production facilities and distribution; monitoring food; educating small and medium enterprises to forming an integrated food security monitoring network.

The cooperation also stipulates that the BPOM and city administration will form a team that will regularly conduct monitoring at least four times a month.

Suratmono said the result of the test would be handed over to the Information and Communications Agency to be recorded and exposed.

Jakarta Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama said the city administration would provide a grant for a mobile laboratory that could facilitate food testing. '€œWe want our street vendors to be monitored and certified,'€ he said, adding that those who have safe food would be given a sticker for their carts.

Ahok said that he hoped the information agency could also use a mobile application to show the BPOM'€™s test results.

'€œWe will shut down a restaurant if it is proven to use hazardous substances consistently,'€ he said.

The governor also suggested that the BPOM use the administration'€™s facility, which is a one-stop integrated service (PTSP) program, so businesspeople could easily register their products with the BPOM.

Ahok also ordered market operator PD Pasar Jaya to make an agreement with future tenants that if they sold food containing hazardous substances, they would be chased out from the market.

He went on to say that he had ordered all food served at events held by the Jakarta administration to be tested.

Ahok said he knew of food vendors in Jakarta that used harmful chemicals.

He gave an example of a siomay (steamed dumpling) vendor at a bazaar held by the Indonesia Cancer Foundation. '€œWhen it was tested, it was shown to contain formaldehyde and borax,'€ he said.