Ministry lifts order that put Hill Milling operations on pause

Food manufacturing plant Hill Milling Company Ltd. has been given the all-clear to resume business.

Almost four months after ordering the company to close because of a rat infestation, the Ministry of Health and Wellness has rescinded that stop order.

In a statement issued on Friday evening, Chief Medical Officer Dr The Most Honourable Kenneth George said that after several inspections at the Roberts Road, Haggatt Hall, St Michael company which he and members of the ministry’s environmental health team conducted, “it was agreed that operations at the manufacturing plant could resume”.

However, he assured members of the public that the ministry would continue to monitor operations at the company.

On June 26, 2023, health authorities forced the closure of the plant and later dumped more than half a million dollars in food items.

Earlier this week, Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Arthur Phillips told Barbados TODAY that after doing most of what it was required to do, Hill Milling was on track to get back to business.

He said there would have to be an inspection and the plant would have to be sanitised, “once we have signed off on everything else”.

Chief Executive Officer of the company Richard Ashby had complained that while waiting for the health authorities to give him the all-clear to reopen, staff had been sent on leave; his local and overseas customers were without products, which include rice, sugar, corn curls, oats, peas, beans and snacks; and the major revenue-earning portion of his business, exports, was in jeopardy. (BT)