Food Safety Policy Compliance of Local Government Units in Pangasinan

Mea Fronda Baldonado

Mea Fronda Baldonado Institute of Graduate and Advanced Studies, Urdaneta City University, Philippines

Keywords: Local Government Units, food safety, food business establishments, inspection

Abstract

This study aimed to review the food safety compliance of the Local Government Units in the Province of Pangasinan. This research used a combination of descriptive quantitative and qualitative approaches involving all the 34 city/municipal sanitation inspectors of the ten (10) Local Government Units (LGUs) in Pangasinan who served as the key informants/respondents. This study established that when human settlement areas become urbanized, their population increases which in turn increase the demand for food sourced from food business establishments. Despite some deficiencies, this study ascertained that the LGUs complied with the food safety standards as provided by law. The respondents attribute the gaps between the food safety standards and the LGU compliance with the food safety standards to the insufficient number of manpower resources in each LGU to conduct inspections on food business establishments. This study concludes that there is a significant relationship between the extent of compliance of the LGUs with the food safety standards and their profile variables. In sum, as the number of people, personnel, and business establishments in the LGUs increase, the higher is the extent of compliance of the LGUs with the food safety standards.

Author Biography

Mea Fronda Baldonado, Institute of Graduate and Advanced Studies, Urdaneta City University, Philippines

The author lives in Binmaley, Pangasinan and is currently working as a government employee and, designated as the Head of the Fisheries Inspection and Quarantine Unit. She is also a member of the Regional Food Safety Team and a member of various organizations working on standardization of fish and fishery/aquatic products.