Dubai's 'poor' food joints improve ratings

Dubai - This number is going to increase as we are about to host Expo 2020.

Around 50 per cent of the food establishments in Dubai, which were rated poor during the Dubai Municipality's Happiness Inspection campaign improved their status to higher grades within one year.
Sultan Al Tahir, head of the food inspection section at the municipality's Food Safety Department, explained that one year after the implementation of the initiative; the municipality has achieved its goals beyond expectations through the performance indicators of the reports of its inspection team and the results of the happiness questionnaire that was designed for the targeted food establishments.
He stressed that out of the targeted 450 food establishments, 222 have developed from a weak to very good hygienic condition and 228 are on their track of improvement.
"Out of the 900 low-rated food establishments that needed to raise their hygiene level and educate their employees on the hygiene conditions of the municipality's food safety department, we targeted 450 in a year," said Al Tahir pointed out.
"During the 2016 period, 450 food establishments were unable to meet basic food safety requirements. They were subject to routine inspection procedures and red cards were issued indicating high-risk violations and temporary closure due to failure to meet the hygiene requirements and accumulated violations to no avail," he said.
Al Tahir said that the Happiness Inspection Initiative was launched last year to achieve the happiness and well-being of the different categories of the community, the residents and visitors. "Dubai is a vibrant city and is a food oasis for tourists and residents, attracting more than 15 million visitors a year.
This number is going to increase as we are about to host Expo 2020. Dubai has 17,000 food establishments and this number is increasing by 7 per cent annually. More than 160 nationalities work in the food industry," he said.
He pointed out that workers in these establishments sometimes are not qualified and trained enough, because they are sometimes brought in from countries that do not have good food safety regulations.
"Most owners and managers of food enterprises have an urgent desire to raise the level of food safety and the level of workers in their establishments, but they do not know what to do. So, the prime objective of this initiative focuses on raising the hygienic and technical levels of the very low rated establishments through technical support, helping them to solve all the accumulated violations, and ensuring the continuity of the development of the hygienic and technical levels through the implementation of the best global practices for food safety and supervision on them," said Al Tahir.
reporters@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE
• Dubai