UAE restaurants braced for inspectors

Posted: February 1st, 2011 - 7:11pm by Doug Powell

The first 150 graduates of a new municipality training programme are ready to take on the task of ensuring their restaurants are safe and clean.

Under Dubai Municipality's Person in Charge (PIC) program, food outlets will be expected to take the initiative to ensure they meet safety standards rather than relying on the municipality's Food Control department to police them.

The PIC idea was part of a plan to raise restaurant standards and lower the number of food poisoning cases in Dubai. That plan gained momentum in August 2009 after the deaths of two young siblings who ate spoiled takeaway food in Al Qusais.

By the end of this year, every restaurant and cafeteria in the emirate is expected to have a trained PIC.

Those who successfully complete the PIC exam act as liaison between the premises and the municipality. Their job is to ensure that municipal policies are carried out correctly at all times by anyone handling food.
 

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Categories: Restaurant Inspection
Tags: Dubai, food safety, restauarant inspection, United Arab Emirates

Comments

Kaushik Biswas says:

Here in India we do not have any such PIC, but there's a restaurant manager who is either the owner or employed by the owner. There are inspectors from the food and health department who are supposed to visit city restaurants and ensure safety and cleanliness but we never see them doing their job. Yes, there are some occasions when people fell sick and government health department talks about setting up enquiry committee but nobody talks about those inspectors who skipped their duties. A lot needs to be done in India regarding this issue. Because, every day there are one or two restaurants popping up here and there, ventures taken by small business owners or someone in person. There's a need to keep a watchful eye on such outlets or else it will be a massive health risk some day in future.

Posted on February 2nd, 2011 - 2:03am

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