Dubai: Failure to fulfill health safety and technical requirements led to temporary closure orders for 15 food outlets in 2011, according to the Dubai Municipality.
The civic body conducted more than 6,600 visits in the last quarter, of which only four per cent were found to be "not satisfactory". Only 10 outlets were awarded with excellent category whereas about 11 per cent showed ‘very good' performance.
Almost 600 visits were based on on notifications from public regarding issues with restaurants and other catering services.
Common violations by food outlets included lack of general cleanliness, display of food at improper temperatures and of expired food, pests, inspects and improper storage.
"The outlets that got closure orders may be allowed to re-run their businesses after they fulfil the requirements mandated by the municipality," said Sultan Ali Tahir, Head of the Food Inspection Section , Food Control Department at Dubai Municipality.
The department conducts regular inspections to check irregularities and Tahir said the number of institutions not fulfilling the requirements had reduced in the last few years.
In 2010, the number of violations reduced by almost 50 per cent, from more than 14,000 in the previous year to around 7,800.
According to the report during the final quarter of the last year, the civic body carried out 6592 field visits .Food Inspectors with DM routinely conducted 30-35 visits a week and in order to ensure that the directives issued by the inspectors were implemented, follow up visits were conducted.
In these visits, officials evaluate the institutions on the basis of their performance to accomplish technical specifications mandated and on implementation of health safety directives.
Giving details about the evaluations, Tahir said that 10 outlets were awarded with an ‘excellent category' whereas 595 were declared ‘very good' and around 79 per cent were found to be "good" in their services.
"Sadly, we found 257 institutions, four percent of the total number, as "not satisfactory " for which Municipality started rapid quality improvement measures," he added.
The public can notify the department with complaints regarding institutions violating the prescribed norms as well as ask information and questions by contacting 800900.
