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Food safety camp for Ajman civic officials

AJMAN - The Health Section of Ajman Municipality organised a lecture on "precautionary measures for food safety" to enhance the performance of its employees and promote the services provided to the public at Ajman Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The lecture, which was conducted by Dr Lutfy Fahmi Hamzawi, professor of agriculture at Ain Shams University in Egypt, was attended by many officials from the Ajman Municipality and many inspectors, chemical analysts from Ajman, Sharjah and Dubai Municipalities.

Dr Hamzawi talked about a new system which is known as hazards analysis and critical control point (HACCP). He said that the system was developed in 1996 and is preferred by food safety professionals around the world and is widely viewed as effective to food safety because it helps prevent food contamination by identifying potentially unsafe links in the food processing chain.

He added that traditionally, industry and food companies have depended on spot-checks of manufacturing conditions and random sampling of final products to ensure safe food. "The traditional system is less efficient than the new system," Dr Hamzawi commented.

He said that the HACCP offers a number of efficient advantages such as identifying and preventing hazards from contaminating food, permitting more efficient and effective government oversight, primarily because the record keeping allows inspectors to see how well a firm is complying with food safety regulations. He urged the government to contribute in developing regulations that would establish the HACCP as the food safety standard in all kinds of the food industry, including local and imported products. "A number of food companies in the UAE already use the system in their manufacturing processes, and it is also in use in other countries in the Arab world," Dr Hamzawi added.

Speaking to Khaleej Times, Dr Mohammed Attia, Deputy Head of Health section, said that the lecture is part of the training programme being conducted by the municipality to enhance the performance of its employees and promote the service to the public. The lecture aims at educating the inspectors of the health section and the analysts of the laboratory about effective analysis and evaluation of preventive control measures for food safety.

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