UAE | Health
Human factor critical to ensuring food safety, says expert
Preventing food poisoning cannot happen without considering the human factor, the most important and yet the most neglected part of food safety, says an international food safety expert.
- By Nina Muslim, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:39 February 28, 2008
Dubai: Preventing food poisoning cannot happen without considering the human factor, the most important and yet the most neglected part of food safety, says an international food safety expert.
Professor Chris Griffith, head of food research and consultancy unit at Cardiff School of Health Sciences, told delegates at the Dubai International Food Safety Conference that people often forgot food safety was not just an issue of hygiene.
"The problem is that we have been treating food safety as a microbiology problem and not as a human problem. Humans are involved throughout the food chain, from the food handlers to food enforcers and consumers," he said.
"Food safety is a collective responsibility," he added. One of the weakest links in the food chain is the work culture along the food chain; from farm to fork.
To illustrate the point, Professor Griffith used the example of the E.coli outbreak in South Wales in 2005, which caused hundreds to get sick and killed a 5-year-old boy.
William Tudor, the butcher who supplied tainted meat to 44 schools in the country, spent one year in jail. In the public inquiry, Professor Griffith had testified that the culture at the butcher's created the situation for the outbreak.
He said some of the issues that affected food safety at the butcher's included having staff come in although they were sick and cutting rotten bits off expired meat and using the remainder in the school dinners.
"The culture is there, where profit is more important than food safety. We can train the staff but we also need to educate the managers. In 50 per cent of the cases, the management is at fault. They have the wrong food safety culture," he said. "Yes, they are in business to make money, but if they put profit before food safety," they will lose money, he added.
The UAE has seen its fair share of food poisoning cases, which has caused many to fall ill and killed a few.
Abdullah Al Junaibi, field operations manager at Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority, told Gulf News they were taking tough measures to eradicate the culture of profit over safety among some food producers, including restaurants, butcheries and factories.
"Some managers are not taking care. They know what is required but they don't do it. That is where laws and regulations come in. For some people, the carrot does not work so we have to use the stick," he said. Action includes shutting down and revoking the licence of restaurants and food producers who do not comply with food safety laws.
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