Unified approach
Discussing the development of food safety in the GCC at the recently held Specialty Food Festival, Diversey Consulting Middle East regional director Abdul Rashid said the main task for governments would be achieving a harmonious approach.
He added that he expected this to be resolved within the next few years, predicting that by 2012, the GCC countries will have achieved “99% harmony”.
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“One of the priorities is to achieve a standard across the countries,” Rashid said. “There needs to be a unified guide.”
However, Beutler argued that a GCC-wide set of hygiene regulations was a long way off, citing the variation in standards between different countries in the GCC as a barrier to region-wide regulations.
“The standards across the countries in the region are completely different,” he said.
“Dubai and Abu Dhabi, for example, are leading the way in food safety standards, whereas there are some countries in the GCC that have a long way to go to reach a similar level.”
Sprenger also said Dubai was the leader in terms of current standards, adding: “I believe that the standards of food safety in the hotels of Dubai are comparable to any of the hotels in the leading tourist areas in the world, especially with the implementation of the PIC programme. As with most countries the overall standards of food safety improve each year.”
Bashir Yousif, food safety expert for Dubai Municipality said that food safety was currently at the top of the Government’s agenda.
“The Food Control Department (FCD) of Dubai Municipality adopts the philosophy of effective partnership with its clients — this is the most effective way to ensure that all establishments follow the regulations.” he stressed.
“Additionally, the FCD involves all its partners in drafting new regulations or amending existing regulations. This has an excellent impact on the level of compliance by the establishments to the rules and regulations set by the Government,” he added.
The drive by GCC governments to push the food safety issue forward has not gone unnoticed by chefs, who welcomed the steps governments had taken in increasing hygiene standards across the region.
However, Le Meridién Abu Dhabi executive chef Dominique Morin added that F&B establishments must work alongside governments to ensure the rules were adhered to.
“It is both [the government and hotels]; we are working together. On one side you have the law and on the other side you have the customer and we are in the middle, so we cannot say who is taking the lead — the law is the law, you cannot do anything about that. But we work closely with the authority to guide us, we guide them so we work together,” he concluded.
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