Electric knives to be used in Sharjah shawarma shops

Sharjah: The Municipal Council issued an order on Thursday to make shawarma outlets adopt electric knives in place of the traditional knives.

"The knives are sharpened with another knife or another piece of steel, and some of the metal particles end up contaminating the food and can have cancerous effects," said Dr Salah Al Hajj, Director General of Sharjah Municipality.

Obaid Bin Yousuf Al Qaseer, Director of the Sharjah Municipal Council, urged prompt implementation of the electric knife rule.

With the participation of Sharjah Municipality, the Municipal Council wants outlets to be more hygienic and stop using traditional knives when cutting lamb and chicken for shawarmas.

"In order to maintain a high standard of hygiene in Sharjah, electric knives should be adopted in all the shops, as they would not have to be sharpened anymore," said Al Hajj.

Electric knives are an electrical kitchen device used to handle hard-to-slice foods, and comprises two blades clipped together. The advantage of an electric knife is that less physical effort is required as it runs on electricity, and it is easier to make cleaner slices.

Several food outlets said that they had no objection to the proposition should it be enforced, as they are more than willing to comply with the rules. However, some employees said that a great deal of time will be lost cleaning the electric knives as more maintenance is required.

An employee at Al Mallah cafeteria, Aiman Al Sabeeni, said: "Using an electric knife is more impractical because it will take a lot of time to clean after each use, and customers are already complaining that they want their food prepared faster. But I would not mind using a combination of both."

Sharjah residents had raised concerns over unhygienic conditions.