A collective GCC decision will be taken for measures against a Gulf brand of frozen chicken products if they are found contaminated.
A collective GCC decision will be taken for measures against a Gulf brand of frozen chicken products if they are found contaminated.
This was stated by Engineer Khalil bin Hassan Al Baloushi, Deputy Director General of Health Control, at the Ministry of Regional Municipalities, Envir-onment and Water Resources.
Al Baloushi told Gulf News yesterday: "We have advised all food shops in the country to suspend sales of the 700 and 900 gm products for the time being."
He revealed the UAE authorities first alerted them regarding the possibility that the product was contaminated with salmonella pathogen.
"We were also informed by the GCC Food Safety Committee to take precautionary steps like the authorities in the UAE have done."
Thus the regional municipality officials in Oman have ordered laboratory tests on this brand of frozen chicken products.
According to Al Baloushi, himself a member of the GCC food safety committee, if it is confirmed that the product is contaminated then the committee will decide what action to take in this matter.
"It is not by a single country or two, it is a collective decision to pull the product off shelves for the time being. We are expecting the results of the tests to be available by Monday. At the moment only 700 and 900 gram packets are suspected of being contaminated."
However, he added, the tests will cover weight-wise categories of other poultry products of the firm concerned.
"We have collected samples of the poultry products of the suppliers concerned directly from the market," he said, adding they didn't have the authority to ask suppliers to provide them with the samples.
"We are analysing these samples at our Central Laboratory."
The UAE first took precautionary measures by pulling out some types of poultry products from the firm. "If the tests for salmonella prove negative, then the restriction will be lifted," Al Baloushi assured.
Salmonella is a type of bacteria that causes typhoid fever and many other infections of intestinal origin. Scientists have recorded more than 2,300 strains of salmonella of this pathogen.
Pulling out and destroying the products concerned completely if found to be contaminated will be the obvious course of action.
However, in future the onus will be on the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to control the import of such products.
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