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Dubai Municipality team set to ensure food safety

DUBAI - Dubai Municipality's Food Control Section and abattoirs in various parts of the emirate have completed all the preparations for the Eid Al Adha.

Speaking to Khaleej Times on Tuesday, Khalid Mohammed Sharief, Assistant Director of the Public Health Department and Head of the Food Control Section, said that a team from the section would be working during the holidays to ensure that food safety and hygiene conditions are adhered to in Dubai.

"Our focus will be meat shops, sweet shops and the central fruits and vegetables market, and the team would carry on inspections to ensure that regulations pertaining to food safety and hygiene are followed. Some of the areas that we will pay special attention to include those that are involved more with the shopping festival, such as Al Seef and Al Rigga streets," he said.

"We are ready to receive the public. All the preparations are over to provide a comfortable time for the people who come to get their animals slaughtered during the auspicious occasion," Ahmed Al Shammari, Head of Abattoirs Section in the municipality, said.

He said that unlike last year, the abattoirs expect a larger crowd this year. "We have simplified all the procedures to facilitate slaughtering process. We have set up two special counters to collect the fees in place of the single counter we had last year. We have also arranged a special area outside the slaughter hall in order to avoid the rush inside the slaughter hall and the area for handing over the slaughtered animals," Mr Al Shammari said.

There is an area inside the slaughtering hall to facilitate each person, who comes to get his animal slaughtered, to see different stages of the sacrifice such as slaughtering, skin removal, cleaning and preparing. Special number will be given to each animal according to the receipt number, he said.

Mr Al Shammari said no additional fee would be collected this year, noting that the fee remains the same of the previous year and there is no move to increase it also.

"This is because our aim is to encourage the public to get their animals slaughtered only in the municipality abattoirs instead of approaching the wandering butchers. This would ensure the safety of the public from dangers such as diseases caused by contamination from slaughtering tools or other diseases transmitted to humans from animals," he said.

He said that people who buy the animals from the Cattle Market could straight away come to the abattoirs. "Those who come from Deira area can enter through the main gate of the Cattle Market on Aleppo Road and take the lane for the Abattoir. People from Bur Dubai area can go to the municipality abattoir in Bur Dubai near Carrefoure in Shindagha, where they can find the same facilities and rates available at the main abattoir in Al Qusais. It would be the same case in Hatta Abattoir also," Mr Al Shammari said.

The abattoirs will start receiving the public immediately after the Eid Al Adha prayer. In the days following the Eid, the timing will be from 7.30am to 5.30pm.

As for the fee for slaughtering the animals fixed by the municipality, he said Dh15 would be charged for goat and sheep, Dh25 for calves, Dh35 for medium sized cows, and Dh40 for big cows and big camels.

Mr Al Shammari said that Dubai abattoirs slaughtered a total of 7,575 animals during the four days of Eid Al Adha last year.

He said that a separate unit would treat the waste generated by slaughtering that may create environmental pollution and spread animal diseases. These wastes would be treated under a temperature of 120 degrees for three and a half hours until all the bacteria are eliminated, he added.

The abattoir in Qusais this year is modified with a statue of a camel made of gypsum and steel at the gate that took three months to complete.

The abattoir has also set up a special area for women visitors this year.

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