Maldives Food and Drug Authority (MFDA) has stated that the services of OneGov online portal will be halted for a four-day period, to issue licences and register establishments selling food items.
President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu re-established the MFDA under the Food Safety Act, and designated it as an authority under the Ministry of Health. This Act empowers the MFDA to oversee and authorize food production facilities and markets, and to take action against those failing to comply with established hygienic standards. Additionally, the MFDA is responsible for registering food establishments, ranking them, and issuing licences, functions that were previously managed by the Health Protection Agency (HPA).
Following the implementation of the ACT, MFDA stated that efforts are ongoing to transfer the services from HPA to MFDA. As such, the services HPA provided via OneGov will also be transferred to MFDA. Therefore, it stated that the services provided from the portal will be temporarily halted.
The implementation of the Food Safety Act will ensure that strong measures are taken against food production facilities operating against the law.