Dubai Municipality issues Food Code for eateries

Dubai Municipality is keen to tighten up the rules and regulations surrounding food safety. Photo: Getty

Dubai Municipality has enforced a Food Code which has to be adhered to by all Dubai food outlets to ensure they are following international standards of food safety.

The emirate will become the first in the region to produce such a guideline, useable by the whole food industry, according to the municipality.

The Food Code was launched to support the approach the civic body was taking to develop a food safety guideline to monitor the journey of the food from production to consumption.

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The key references for the code are similar to those issued in the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland and Hong Kong.

Khalid Shareef, director, Food Control Department at Dubai Municipality said: “Dubai’s vision is to establish a world-class food safety system that helps provide safe food to the residents and the several millions that visit the Emirate each year. In addition, we would like the system to ensure safe production and distribution of food and also its safe import and export.

“We would like the system to be so comprehensive and appealing that others are encouraged to use it as a model. Our vision will become a reality only when the government, food industry, service providers, educational and research organisations and the consumers collectively commit to work together and apply sound principles of food safety based on science and research,” he added.

According to Basheer Hassan Yousuf, food safety expert at DM food control department, Food Code is designed to assist the Person In-Charge (PICs) at food establishments to understand their obligations and to carry out operations as per the requirement.

“A notable point regarding the code is that, it not only talks about laws but explains how and why the rules exist. When the code says the food must be at a certain temperature – why is detailed after it,” he said.

The code is hoped to help make it easier for the food industry and the law-enforcement officers to understand the ways to meet the standards and objectives mentioned in the GCC, Federal and Local regulations.