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Abu Dhabi: The Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority has launched a massive inspection campaign against food outlets to ensure standard of food ahead of Ramadan.
During the first phase of inspections targeting 65 bakeries on Sunday night, the officials found only seven outlets adhering to all regulations.
They seized and destroyed 226kg of substandard food items and registered cases against two outlets, said the Rashed Mohammad Al Shariqi, Director General of ADFCA, Director General.
"Two cases of serious violations will be referred to the court that may impose a fine in accordance with the laws. We have given warnings to 56 bakeries where minor violations were found. About seven outlets were found maintaining all regulations," said Al Shariqi.
About 18 teams of 46 officials led by the ADFCA director general and Abdulla J Al Junaibi, Field Operations Manager inspected the outlets.
Al Shariqi said the inspections will be intensified during Ramadan and officials will work 24 hours in three shifts. "The major violations during Ramadan are cooking and keeping food outside. It can get easily contaminated in the humid and hot climate."
He made it clear that the authority has clearly instructed that cooked food must be stored properly.
"Catering services will also be under watch during Ramadan. They must have a special licence which requires strict regulations. Catering services serve food to more people than hotels and restaurants," he said.
The Director General told Gulf News that state of the art technology used by the authority has made the inspections and monitoring easier and transparent.
"All the inspectors in the city are carrying Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) to record the violations during inspections. The details of inspection at a particular outlet are filed so it is easy to find history of the outlet. Frequent offenders are being easily caught by the new digital system," said Al Shariqi.
A senior official of the authority told Gulf News that work is in progress to further improve the digital system.
"Now inspectors copy the details from PDAs to the central system after reaching office. We are trying to link PDAs to the central system so that the details will be simultaneously entered to the central system during inspections," said Mohammad J. Al Reyaysa, Manager of Communication and Information Department.
Have your say
Do you think hygiene standards have dropped as population increase results in higher demand? Should there be a kind of star rating system introduced to help guide consumers? Tell us at letter2editor@gulfnews.com or fill in the comments form below.
Your comments
I think the authorities should be more transparent in such situations.
At least the names of those bakeries and outlets against whom cases are registered and referred to court for serious violations shall be published in the best interest of public.
Further, fear of losing business due to publishing of names will definitely prompt them to improve quality and more importantly, maintain high level of hygiene.
Shemil
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: September 04, 2007, 08:25
The quality of food items (especially cooking oil) used by the restaurants should be checked. I am sure they use sub-standard cooking oil which has very adverse effect on the health.
Syed
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: September 04, 2007, 08:25
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