A representative from the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) appeared on the program "Good Morning" on Canal Caribe to warn the public about the risks of consuming food that has been left out of refrigeration for too long.
The technically correct message clashes head-on with a reality that the official himself acknowledged on camera: in Cuba, there is hardly any electricity to maintain the cold chain.
Osvaldo Vladimir Puñales Sosa, a master in sciences and an official of the National Director of Environmental Health, was the guest on the television show to explain the importance of food safety in light of the worsening sanitary conditions in the country.
His intervention combined basic hygiene advice with an implicit acknowledgment of the collapse the island is experiencing.
"The most important thing is, above all, to maintain hygiene, placing special emphasis on handwashing. It is said that by simply washing your hands four times a day, you can prevent 50% of foodborne illnesses and 35% of respiratory diseases," stated the official.
The danger of keeping food at room temperature
Puñales Sosa also warned about what food science refers to as the "danger zone": the temperature range in which bacteria multiply rapidly.
Food should not remain at room temperature for more than four hours, and in hot countries like ours, less than two hours, because at that point the food can lose its safety and make us ill, he pointed out.
What makes this warning a paradox is that the official himself acknowledged the contradiction openly.
"What’s happening? Right now, they turn the electricity on, I don't know, in the early morning. So our housewives and mothers get up to prepare food, and sometimes we end up eating at 3, 4 in the afternoon, at whatever time it is. A lot of time passes between the preparation of the food and its consumption, which causes it to lose safety, because in food safety, that's called the danger zone."
In other words: the regime is asking its population to comply with food safety regulations that are only possible with electricity, potable water, and natural gas functioning, three services it has failed to guarantee for years.
Blackouts jeopardize food preservation
The energy crisis has concrete figures.
On Tuesday, the available electricity generation in Cuba was just 1,223 MW compared to a demand of 3,050 MW, resulting in a deficit of 1,827 MW.
In Havana, there were days with just three hours of daylight. Cuba has experienced eight general blackouts so far in 2026, the latest of which left the national interconnection down for about 32 hours.
The impact on food is devastating.
A survey from the Food Monitor Program with over 2,500 responses from the 16 provinces revealed that 47.59% of Cuban households lost refrigerated food due to power outages, a figure that exceeded 80% in Granma, Matanzas, Pinar del Río, and Sancti Spíritus.
Water scarcity and sanitation issues exacerbate the crisis
This is compounded by the collapse of sanitation.
More than 500,000 consumers in Havana lack a stable supply of drinking water.
81.3% of households must boil or chlorinate water before consuming it. In Guantánamo, some towns go up to 25 days without receiving water.
The streets of Havana are accumulating uncollected garbage and sewer water that increase the breeding grounds for the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
Outbreaks of food poisoning in several provinces
In that scenario, outbreaks of food poisoning have multiplied. In August, 52 people were treated in Santiago de Cuba, with 18 hospitalized.
In September, an outbreak in Pedro Betancourt, Matanzas, affected 29 people, 22 of whom were minors. In Holguín, two people lost their lives due to nitrous salt poisoning.
The MINSAP acknowledges a deterioration in the epidemiological situation
The epidemiological situation is equally alarming.
The Minsap acknowledged in September a simultaneous increase in respiratory infections, diarrhea, hepatitis, and arbovirosis, attributed to "limitations in environmental sanitation systems, water treatment, and waste collection," according to Deputy Minister Carilda Peña García. Cuba recorded 7,133 cases of dengue in 2026, a figure 7.4 times higher than the expected level for this time of year.
The situation depicts a state that cannot guarantee electricity, water, or gas, yet sends its officials to television to ask the population to adhere to safety regulations that depend precisely on those three services.
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