Fish hawkers will soon be given a set of hygiene standards to follow, Consumer Affairs Parliamentary Secretary Chris Said has announced.

The guidelines will be issued by the Malta Standards Authority next month.

The rules, which regulate open-air markets and mobile fishmongers, were drawn up together with fish hawkers and the Health Department. Among other things, they will regulate the minimum temperature at which the fish have to be stored, how they should be transported and cleaned.

Dr Said held this up as an example of the government’s direction, in that it wanted to set standards in collaboration with industry rather than enacting legislation.

Over 20,000 EU standards have been transposed into the Maltese statute book since 2004 and the standards authority has added another 12 over the years.

Dr Said, who this week attended a business breakfast organised by John’s Garage on the health and safety implications of spray painting in garages, hoped the agency would be up and running by the end of the year after a consultation period with stakeholders and Parliament’s approval.

Charles Attard, from the Occupational Health and Safety Authority, said that health conditions caused by spray painting were usually chronic and showed up after many years.

“For example, a sprayer used to wash his hands with thinner every day to make sure they were clean. But now he can barely lift a mug as he has numbed all his nerves,” Mr Attard said.

Reducing danger at the workplace could be done through a risk assessment, which was very easy to carry out, he said. “Through the assessment, one would identify the dangers and see if and what control measures were needed.”