Dubai: Alcohol in food will not be banned, says a senior Dubai Municipality official.
"We will not be banning restaurants from using alcohol in food, it will just have to be better regulated," Khalid Mohammad Sharif, Director of the Food Control Department at the municipality, told Gulf News yesterday.
He added that a ban of that kind is not within the municipality's jurisdiction alone and must pass through a number of governmental authorities.
"We have found that a number of hotels and restaurants have been in violation by not informing their customer of the alcohol content of the food they are serving," said Sharif.
He added that restaurants must completely separate foods containing alcohol from those that don't, "there must be a separate preparation area as well as segregating the cooking utensils that were exposed to alcohol".
"Restaurants must clearly inform customer of the content of their food; this means clearly stating it in their menus and informing the customer verbally," said Sharif. Sharif said that violators will face strong penalties but would not go into details. Sharif's comments come in the wake of reports earlier this week that the municipality planned to ban the use of alcohol in food due to a large number of violations. The municipality has however sent out circulars to hotels telling them to stop using alcohol in food.
The Hyatt Regency Hotel confirmed to Gulf News that they received a notice from the municipality telling them to stop using alcohol in food last week and said they have complied with the notice. Accor Hospitality Group, which includes Novotel, Sofitel and Ibis hotels, also confirmed that they had received the municipality circular.
