Dubai - The Food Safety Department on Tuesday launched its new food inspection rating system with colour-coded cards that tell diners how eateries in Dubai fared in food safety checks.
Published: Wed 28 Oct 2015, 12:00 AM
Last updated: Wed 28 Oct 2015, 4:50 PM
Diners in Dubai can now know the level of safety of the food on their plates from the colour of the card the eatery has earned from the Dubai Municipality to display at its entrance.
The Food Safety Department on Tuesday launched its new food inspection rating system with colour-coded cards that tell diners how eateries in Dubai fared in food safety checks.
At the opening ceremony of the 10th Dubai International Food Safety Conference, it named and famed the top 10 food establishments that secured the excellent scores (95 to 100 points) in food inspections with gold plaques. The Minister of Environment and Water Dr Rashid Ahmed Mohammed bin Fahad and the Director-General of Dubai Municipality Hussain Nasser Lootah honoured them.
Gold plaque winners
- Burj Al Arab
- J.W. Marriott Marquis
- Cheesecake Factory (Mall of the Emirates)
- Spinneys (Silicon Oasis)
- Mai Dubai
- Nestlé
- Emirates Industry for Camel Milk and Products
- Gyma Food Industries
- Emirates Flight Catering
- Dubai World Trade Centre
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At a separate ceremony in the conference, some 200 hotels, restaurants, cafeterias, catering companies and food manufacturers were awarded green cards with A grade. They indicate their good rating (90-74 points) with no records of violations in inspections.
A light green card indicates satisfactory rating with less than five minor violations. A yellow card indicating conditional pass is issued when there is one major violation or five to seven general violations.
A red card indicates the eatery has failed in inspections, by recording any critical or two or more major violations or more than seven general violations. After corrective action has been taken on a red, the card status will revert to "white" when the grade will be pending until the next inspection.
Sultan Ali Al Taher, the head of Food Inspection Section, said naming and faming eateries is Dubai's new way of improving food safety standards.
Bobby Krishna, specialist at the section said the municipality is looking at positive reinforcement of safety and hygiene standards through the colour-grading system.
"We will try and challenge you to take it away.but we hope that you will strive hard to keep the colour with you," he told the A graders.
Encouragement and responsibility
"Of course, this is an encouragement for us," said Shamla Suneer Babu, assistant health and safety manager for Jumeirah Restaurants Group which bagged green cards with A grade for Rivington Grill, Pots, Pans and Boards and Big Chefs restaurants.
"But this is giving us more responsibility to maintain high safety standards.Hygiene officers and chefs will be competing to keep the green card in coming audits also," she said.
The new card system will be rolled out across the 14,000 food outlets in one month.
However, Meitha Al Marri, senior food health inspection officer, said the last three cards that will degrade the reputation of the eateries will not be displayed to the customers.
"It will be issued to the outlets and we will work with them to raise their ratings to green as our approach is to name and fame, not name and shame," she said.
sajila@khaleejtimes.com
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