Uae

  • Food safety improvements in Dubai; UAE is more than Sex and the City II

    Posted: February 23rd, 2012 - 7:43am by Doug Powell

    I didn’t know Chapman knew Arabic.

    But there he was, goofy pic and all (right, exactly as shown, any of them), in the Daily Bite at the Dubai food safety conference, saying something about how wonderful it all was.

    In real news, Dubai is joining PulseNet International, which monitors foodborne bacteria through their DNA fingerprints.

    Dr Peter Gerner-Smidt, a speaker at the conference and a member of the PulseNet International Steering Committee said the network offers real time surveillance resulting in early detection and warnings.

    “If you routinely use PulseNet to detect outbreaks then you will detect many more outbreaks and you will also be able to solve them to derive what the causes are and using that information you can make food much safer,” he told Khaleej Times. “In Dubai, you import most of your foods. So I would think that a lot of the problems you are going to detect here will be present in other places in the world. So they will need to work with the PulseNet Middle East and Pulse Net International to make the investigation 
international.

    Bobby ”Bobby” Krishna (pretty much as shown, left) Dubai’s Senior Food Studies and Surveys Officer said Dubai Municipality would be working in association with its counterpart in Abu Dhabi and the health authorities in both the emirates for becoming active partners in the network.

    Kannangot Pallikkal Yousuf did not have a 12th grade pass certificate when he arrived in Dubai 13 years ago.

    He found a job as a delivery boy with a supermarket under the Talal Group. In seven years, he climbed the ranks to become salesman, cashier and then to a hygiene supervisor. After six years’ of experience in that post, Yousuf has now earned a special recognition for his knowledge in food safety and hygiene matters, thanks to the Dubai Municipality’s Person-in-Charge (PIC) programme that mandates a food safety manager in every food outlet in Dubai.

    Yousuf is now a PIC, supervising the hygiene and food safety matters in the Talal Supermarket in Deira YB Road.

    The story of this 31-year-old Indian expatriate from Kerala is a classic example of how the municipality’s Food Control Department is revolutionising food safety in Dubai eateries by ensuring trained and certified personnel as food safety managers in each food outlet.

    And there’s Chapman again PICs, restaurant and hotel managers and chefs will attend a workshop Thursday to enhance their skills in managing food facilities so that employees are trained on processes with validated hazard control. The workshop titled “Person in Charge-Plan and Control of Food safety in Retail Food Operations” is being organized as a post-event session of the 7th Dubai International Food Safety Conference that concluded on Wednesday.

    Dr. O Peter Snyder, founder and president of Hospitality Institute of Technology and Management in Minnesota and Dr. Ben Chapman, an assistant professor and food safety extension specialist at North Carolina State University will conduct the workshop at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

    And while I left before the closing day of the 7th Dubai International Food Safety conference, which apparently hosted a “cream of experts in the field of food safety,” because I had already been there for 12 days, which was the longest I’d been away from wife and child – ever. Chapman and I hung out by the pool and e-mailed each other about future research, but on my last night, the wind was so strong it impacted the wireless and we returned to our respective rooms. See you in a few more years. Attendance is not a criteria for teaching, research or extension. Performance is.

    Happy birthday, Pete.

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    Chapman, Dubai, food safety, krishna, person in charge, Uae
  • Good use of smartphones: pics of steak served - with worms - at well-known UAE restaurant

    Posted: July 24th, 2011 - 10:14am by Doug Powell

    Emirates 24/7 reports that a man who wanted a steak went to a famous food chain’s outlet at Sharjah’s Sahara Centre and ordered one.

    As the dish was served, his hunger instantly turned into disgust as there were worms in the plate.

    Infuriated, Bahaa Hijazi quickly took shots of the plate with his mobile phone, summoned the restaurant manager and protested.

    The manager said sorry and offered him another free meal.

    “But of course I refused and told him it is not a matter of another meal… it has to do with negligence and unhygienic practices at the restaurant,” Hijazi said, quoted by the Arabic language daily Emirat Alyoum on Saturday.

    “I made clear to him that there should be an investigation and those responsible for this must be punished… I then called the Sharjah Municipality.”

    Hijazi said a municipal inspector who came to the restaurant later met the manager, talked to him and fined him.

    “This is not enough… the inspector did not bother take the normal procedures in such cases and enter the restaurant to check storage and the workers… I feel there the fine was not enough and stricter measures must be taken.”
     

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    Restaurant Inspection  |  3 Comments
    food safety, steak, Uae, worm
  • Workers' 'squalid' catering unit in UAE closed after hundreds fall sick

    Posted: March 28th, 2011 - 7:33pm by Doug Powell

    The United Arab Emirates has made food safety a priority, and food service companies have apparently imported some Western-style BS explanations when people barf.

    A spokesthingy for a labor camp operated by Abu Dhabi-based Al Jaber Group, told The National.

    "The safety of our staff is our utmost priority. … In more than two decades of operation, and serving 150,000 meals a day all over the UAE, this is the first instance of food poisoning at any of our camps."

    Not much consolation to the 236 workers who were diagnosed with food poisoning; the catering unit was found to be operating without a licence and under "squalid conditions."

    Investigators from the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority (ADFCA) have closed down the catering unit at the Habshan Labour Camp after 117 workers were taken to Madinat Zayed Hospital on Saturday and Sunday, and a further 119 were treated on site at the camp.

    Inspectors found cockroaches inside the water dispensers and destroyed 675kg of cooked rice which was kept in "unsafe conditions for more than four hours", according to a statement released by ADFCA.

    The inspection report stated the camp, which caters for 2,200 workers, was "violating all norms of hygiene and disregarding the health consequences for the labourers."

    Cross-contamination - mixing meat, poultry and vegetables, both raw and uncooked, in the same freezer - was apparent, and food products did not have manufacturing details on them, so may have been expired, the report said.

    Mohammed al Reyaysa, the director of communications at ADFCA, described the conditions as "shocking" and said "the people behind this disaster will not go unpunished."

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    Abu Dhabi, catering, food safety, poison, Uae
  • Name and shame arrives in United Arab Emirates

    Posted: May 15th, 2010 - 9:37pm by Doug Powell

    The Australians popularized the ‘name and shame’ approach to restaurant inspection disclosure (the Brits use ‘scores on doors,’ those in Toronto use pretty colors and Danes use smiley faces).

    Mohammed al Reyaysa, the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority’s spokesman, told The National today that restaurant operators promised to improve hygiene standards after the emirate’s food safety watchdog named 17 outlets that were temporarily closed because of violations, adding,

    “When all efforts fail, we are left with no other option but to order the closure of the outlet that functions in utter disregard for public health and the law of the land. The health and safety of the consumer is the red line that should not be crossed in any circumstance.”

    Of the 17 establishments that were closed this year, 15 were in Abu Dhabi city and two were in Al Gharbia.

    They were allowed to reopen after the Food Control Authority was confident the violations had been corrected.

    Mr al Reyaysa further noted the restaurants closed were “fraught with potential danger to the health of the consumers”, such as kitchens infested with insects, improper drainage systems and waste disposal, and mixing meat and fruits.

    He also criticized restaurants that complain inspections are too rigorous.

    “We have clear requirements and regulations that are based on global best practices. We are not less, and our consumers are not less, than those in Europe and America. We do not sacrifice the health of the consumer so establishments can make more money or avoid having their names mentioned in the media.”

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    Abu Dhabi, Name And Shame, restaurant inspection disclosure, Uae, United Arab Emirates
  • Letter grades for Abu Dhabi restaurants?

    Posted: June 7th, 2009 - 4:40pm by Doug Powell

    If the UAE takes letter grades for restaurant inspection disclosure, will they also take American pop culture crap like The Hills (right).

    The National reports that more than half of all restaurants monitored by Sharjah Municipality have failed basic food hygiene inspections on such grounds as out-of-date food and mouldy kitchens.

    Over the past 12 months, inspectors checked 1,588 restaurants and cafeterias, of which only 223 met the minimum requirements, according to Jassim Mohammed al Ali, head of the municipality’s internal inspection department.

    Of the remaining establishments, 891 were issued with warnings and 474 were closed temporarily until they improved.

    Restaurants and grocery shops in the capital will face similar inspections over the coming weeks.

    The news comes a week after a four-year-old girl died from food poisoning in Sharjah. Marwa Faisal died in Al Qassimi Hospital early last Sunday, just 55 minutes after she, her parents and her brother had been admitted with symptoms that included violent vomiting. …

    The Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority has warned grocery shop operators and restaurant managers in the emirate a concerted food inspection campaign is on the way in the lead-up to the summer.

    Last month in Al Ain, spot checks by ADFCA inspectors and city police found 143 lorries hauling produce to markets and restaurants without proper permits. …

    The ADFCA is also considering implementing a restaurants grading system similar to that implemented in 2006 for fish markets and butcher shops.

    Under the proposed programme, all the emirate’s food outlets would be required clearly to display a certificate disclosing health inspection results –“A” for exceptional health and safety practices, “B” for very good, or a passing “C” grade.

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    Disclosure, Dubai, The Hills, Uae