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Ajman civic body seizes unhygienic food items

AJMAN — Ajman Municipality recently confiscated tons of various food items which were found unfit for human consumption from many outlets.

The confiscated items included meat products, fish, vegetables, juices and various kinds of canned food.

The Central Food Control Laboratory of the municipality found that these food items contained ingredients which pose serious health hazards to the consumers’ health.

Dr Mohammed Attia, Deputy Head of the Health Section at Ajman Municipality, told Khaleej Times that the unfit food products were confiscated by the civic body during inspections targeting food outlets, butcheries, supermarkets, groceries and manufacturers.

"Large quantities of meat and liver was found rotten and unfit for human consumption," he said.

Dr Attia said the municipality believes that the red meat already available in the markets should be safe, having passed through all quarantine tests to ensure it is fit for human consumption.

"The problem is that some meat shops do not abide by the municipality's regulations of storage, not keeping the meat frozen and hanging them out for long periods of time which spoils the meat," he said.

"Since meat is prone to contamination, containers must, therefore, be clean and kept in a thoroughly hygienic condition. The transportation companies and meat shops are responsible for ensuring sale of quality meat throughout the emirate," he asserted.

Dr Attia pointed out that the health section and the central laboratory of the municipality are keeping a strict control over malpractices, and containing them by carrying out surprise food inspection campaigns regularly.

"These campaigns are aimed at ensuring a safe food market. The elimination of the sources of unfit, harmful and low quality food is top priority for us," he asserted.

Dr Attia commented that as a result of the municipality's strict supervision of the market and through regular follow-up visits to errant outlets, the number of violations dropped remarkably during 2005 by over 70 per cent compared to the previous years.

He attributed these achievements to the experienced and qualified inspectors of the municipality and to their hard work in following up the market conditions.

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