Facing up to food safety standards

Food handlers must be taught correct hygiene and safety practices.

Following a flurry of food-poisoning incidents reportedly linked to Middle East outlets, how do F&B professionals think the region is faring in the safety stakes and how can the situation be improved?

A series of stories in the region’s press regarding food poisoning incidents has forced the issue of food safety under the spotlight in recent weeks — but in reality, how successfully do Middle East outlets implement and adhere to safety and hygiene regulations?

Apparently it depends where you look: according to experts, standards vary widely across the region.

Food Safety Consultancy general manager Fran Collison, based in Muscat, Oman, said health and safety standards in the region’s hospitality industry range “from the sublime to the ridiculous”.

According to Collison, improper use of food-handling gloves is one key cause of contamination in the region’s kitchens, as is failing to adhere to basic storage regulations, especially for hot and cold food items.

Dubai Municipality director of food control department Khalid Mohammed Sharif admitted that although “all outlets have to follow the regulations”, the degree of compliance “often varies, depending on the commitment from the business owner, the knowledge of food-handlers and facilities available to carry out operations”.

“Looking at the common violations, many of them are simple mistakes that do not lead to serious food safety problems,” he added.

“What we concentrate on are critical issues that may not be common, but that can have serious effects on the safety of food.”

Dubai Municipality’s Food Control Section sets out rules for food hygiene consistent with UAE, GCC and Codex regulations.

Story continues below

In Saudi Arabia, The Ministry of Health “visits from time to time and check the facilities — so naturally we record everything,” explained Radisson Blu Hotel, Riyadh food and beverages manager Mohamad Ayman.

“Everything is kept in our files. We adhere to the law and every six months inspectors check up on us,” he added.

“We follow both Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) standards and Rezidor’s ‘Responsible Business’ programme as well.

“For this, we focus on quality management; we keep monthly records of meetings between the chefs, the engineers, the kitchen and waiting staff and myself, which we follow up with regular training,” he said.

At Sofra Worldwide — part of Al Bannai Group, which represents a multitude of restaurants and brands across the Middle East — operations manager Ronald D’Souza said the company also followed a mixture of international and in-house rules.

“We have in-house rules for food labelling and for storing individual food items. Every day managers and head chefs walk through the kitchens to check they are cleaned to a high standard — but then we also use
HACCP,” he explained.

According to Food Safety Consultancy’s Collison, standards are improving. “Many international chefs are coming to the region, bringing high hygiene standards,” she noted.

“But if we start closing down all the restaurants [doing things wrong] it would affect the economy, so standards also have to be scaled down.”

Dubai Municipality’s Sharif said one common problem food inspectors came across was that of owners who set up and run a business without training the employees properly.

“Though a six-hour basic food hygiene training [session] is mandatory for all food handlers, they often do not absorb the information enough to apply it practically in their work,” he noted. “This subsequently leads to bad food safety and hygiene practices.”