By Susan Babijja The Rwanda Bureau of Standards (RBS) has initiated a mechanism through which it monitors and ensures safety of storage facili-ties in hotels and restaurants, especially those that are used to keep foodstuffs.
By Susan Babijja
The Rwanda Bureau of Standards (RBS) has initiated a mechanism through which it monitors and ensures safety of storage facili-ties in hotels and restaurants, especially those that are used to keep foodstuffs. The standards body uses calibration, where hotel facilities like fridges, deep freezers and water heaters are regulated according to international standards to ensure safety of clients.
Calibration is the setting or correcting of a measuring device for adjustment to match consistently and steady measurement. This is always regarded as including the process of adjusting the output or indication on a measurement instrument to agree with value of the applied standard, within a specified accuracy. The system will see equipments such as freezers, refrigerators and cold rooms, hot water system, among others, set at a required standard to make the stored or kept products safe for consumption.
RBS says that at least 268 equipments have been calibrated in 54 hotels and restaurants in Kigali city since the initiative started in 2012. This aims at contributing to the growth of the hospitality industry by enabling players to provide quality services.
The Director of Mass Measurement at Rwanda Bureau of Standards (RBS), Eric Karamuzi, says the initiative started after realizing that calibrated equipment provides safe and reliable measurements that ensure foodstuff safety."When we are calibrating hotel and restaurant equipment, we promote use of proper measurements and good practices; but this does not end there, it is equally important to monitor storage of foodstuff as it is also part of ensuring food safety in hotels and restaurants,” he says.