Dubai: Eateries in Dubai should not record high-risk violations and should achieve a minimum of grade B in food safety inspections before Expo 2020.
This is the target of Dubai Municipality’s Food Safety Department that is being chalked out in the run-up to the mega event, a senior official said on Monday.
Sultan Ali Al Tahir, head of food inspection section at the department said this at a session on the second day of the 11th Dubai International Food Safety Conference.
“All food premises should achieve grade B and above rating by 2020 and no high-risk violation should be there,” he said in reply to a question from the audience.
“This is our target and we are working towards that,” Al Tahir told Gulf News later.
Out of a total of 20,000 food establishments in Dubai, 1,446 received A Grade and 443 qualified for the prestigious A+ rating during 2016. Both these grades are counted as excellent. The rest of the establishments received B, C, D and E ratings according to their performances.
Earlier this week, the department had announced that 2,414 high-risk food establishments secured A+ rating in the first nine months of 2017, a step in direction of achieving its mission.
High-risk establishments represent hotels and big restaurants with large quantities of food preparation and serve ready-to-eat food.
The increased number of their excellent ratings was attributed to the implementation of strategic food safety programmes and their adherence to the procedures to raise the hygiene and technical standards.
A total of 124 food outlets temporarily closed due to high-risk food safety violations.
The department aims to support the establishments that scored low ratings by applying an “Intelligent Inspection Programme.”
This is designed to identify, and analyse the technical and hygiene risks, as well as to process them by developing radical solutions, apart from applying the best practices in food safety.
Expo 2020 is expected to set a benchmark for Dubai’s food safety and the six-month long event will test the efficacy of the food control system and smart solutions set up by the municipality.
