Sharjah Municipality has forced the closure of nearly 500 restaurants in the last 12 months on health and safety grounds, according to a report in UAE daily The National.
Health inspectors from the UAE emirate checked 1588 F&B outlets, of which 474 were closed and 891 issued with warnings; only 223 outlets met minimum health standards.
Offences at some of the closed restaurants included serving out-of-date food and harbouring mouldy kitchens.
Sharjah Municipality department head of internal inspection Jassim Mohammed Al Ali said: “We are urging all food businesses to adhere to best food safety and hygiene practices.
“We will continue [inspections] until we are satisfied there is adherence to good standards in all restaurants.”
Ali also noted that the closures were undermining customer confidence in restaurants across the emirate.
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The news follows the reported death of a four-year old girl’s in Sharjah last week, due to food poisoning.
Marwa Faisal died in the early hours of Sunday morning, within an hour of her parents and brother also being admitted to Al Qassimi Hospital with symptoms including violent vomiting.
The girl’s family had ordered food the previous morning from a local restaurant, followed by two home-cooked meals during the day. Sharjah Municipality are continuing to investigate the case.
Other emirate authorities are continuing the fight against health and hygiene misdemeanours, as Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority issued warnings this week to restaurant and shop managers ahead of a planned food inspection campaign over the coming weeks.
ADFCA spokesman Mohammed Al Reyaysa said: “Our inspectors are always in different places and as we are beginning summertime now we have to be aware that there is hot weather that will affect the transportation, storage and packaging of food.
“This is the time when many people go travelling, so we’re also checking all the grocery stores and supermarkets on the roads.”
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Jul 11, 2010 , United Arab Emirates
Commitment to the food safety may get diluted as profit weighs more than that in case of some small entrepreneurs if there is no one to preach about the importance of food safety. Dubai municipality's initiative is highly commendable as their eyes are always up on food establishments that make th...
Jul 11, 2010 , United Arab Emirates
Dear Shabir, I fully agree with you. Anyone can preach, but hard to be practical. Like what Dubai is doing or initiated let some one be the responsible for food safety in the business (PIC- Person In Charge). liasing with authorities and responsibe for the food safety objective.