Fatal food
Middle East operators have had a sharp reminder this month of why food safety and hygiene is so essential
The region’s F&B operators following the news on HotelierMiddleEast.com this month will have noticed some unpleasant food truths coming to light in the UAE.
Following the death of a four-year old girl in Sharjah due to food poisoning, Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National revealed that Sharjah Municipality had forced the closure of nearly 500 restaurants in the last 12 months on health and safety grounds.
It seems 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.
And just this week we reported a story about a local restaurant that may be responsible for a case of food poisoning that killed two children from a Dubai-based expatriate family.
According to local newspaper Gulf News, a few hours after eating a take-away meal from the Lotus Garden Chinese restaurant in Al Ghusais, a woman, her five-year old son and seven-year-old sister daughter were being treated in hospital for suspected food poisoning.
A source from the hospital reportedly confirmed that the young boy was pronounced dead on arrival and the girl was pronounced dead the following morning.
At the time of this story going to press, Caterer contacted Dubai Municipality’s health department for a comment, where a spokesperson confirmed the case was still under investigation.
Put quite simply, this is unacceptable.
What kind of place are we living in where children are dying from food poisoning?
Yes, there are less fortunate areas of the world where terrible incidents like these do happen. But for the most part, the Middle East is a modern, safe place known as a top tourist destination.
This region has supposedly made leaps and bounds in food safety over the past decade — to the extent that various food safety professionals have actually lauded the region’s governments for their efforts.
But if the UAE’s recent discoveries are any indication of the rest of the region, it is clear that more needs to be done — particularly with regard to independent outlets.
Commenting on this issue at Caterer’s hosted discussion at the International Food Safety Conference earlier this year, Peter Christopher-Ohrt — managing director of Hands Partnership, part of Food Alert Group — said although it was “impressive how effectively many places in the region have introduced [a food safety] system in such a short period of time,” there were still problems to address.
“Food safety is easy for new properties, where measures can be integrated into the initial building and operational plans, but for older or independent outlets it’s a far bigger challenge,” he noted.
“So these places do need to be looked at and I think getting the message across there will be a challenge — particularly with language barriers, because of the variety of nationalities working in the region.”
Oman’s National Hospitality Institute principal Rob MacLean added: “There are so many nationalities that it is tough getting the training across in a way that’s understandable.”
There are clearly significant challenges for some independent outlets: so let’s see some support for them!
The UAE is now looking at the deaths of three children, all due to suspected cases of food poisoning, and with summer coming, creating a heated haven for bacteria, maintaining hygiene in food handling is going to become even more difficult.
Surely it’s time for governments to take a stand and make sure food safety and hygiene measures are in place across the board?
Something must be done, because aside from the damage rumours about fatal food could do to our global gastronomy status, it would be criminal to see anymore people die as a result of poor health and hygiene standards.