The female food vendor who was caught on camera urinating in a plastic bottle near the Charles Gordon Market in Montego Bay, St James, is liable for prosecution, according to an official of the St James Health Department.
Medical Officer of Health for St James, Francine Phillips-Kelly, announced at a press conference yesterday that the vendor, who remains unidentified, had breached several of the food handling regulations.
“She (the female vendor) is liable for prosecution based on her breaching the food handling regulations of 1998,” Phillips-Kelly said, adding that the vendor recorded six such breaches.The medical officer said the female vendor is expected to be prosecuted later this week.
Phillips-Kelly also disclosed that the woman will no longer be allowed to sell her wares, including ground provisions, pears and oranges, in the space near the market because of the alleged breaches committed.
“This vendor will not be able to continue selling, and action will be taken accordingly,” Phillips-Kelly reiterated.The vendor’s food handler’s permit, last renewed in 2021, had expired.
In a subsequent radio interview, Phillips-Kelly said the health department met with the vendor before the press conference on two occasions.
During those meetings, the medical officer said the woman could not recall when the incident took place.
Also, the woman was not aware that she was being recorded by individuals in a parked car in front of the bus where the act was committed. The video recorders have not been located.
When asked what reason the vendor gave for committing the unsanitary act, Phillips-Kelly said the woman pointed out that she had “knee surgery” and had “difficulty” moving to where she needed to go to use the sanitary conveniences at the market.
In the same radio interview, Mayor of Montego Bay, Richard Vernon revealed that the woman had been selling in the market up to 2021, and opted not to renew her licence. She then started selling her wares on the street.
Vernon said despite not selling in the market, the female vendor still had access to the market’s bathroom facilities.
The nearly two-minute clip of the incident which has gone viral, captures the elderly vendor urinating in a half-cut plastic bottle, and then pouring the contents into a whole plastic bottle, then making off without washing her hands.
The footage has sparked widespread condemnation, with some persons naming the woman “Alice 2.0”.
“Alice” refers to Alice Waugh, the crab vendor who was seen in a viral video wiping herself after having defecating inside a stall close to food items that were being sold at the Crab Circle area of Heroes Circle in Kingston in October of last year.
Waugh was subsequently fined $250,000 for breaching the Public Health Act.
