Dubai: A number of food establishments received a thumbs-up from Dubai Municipality this week, and nearly 2,000 are now officially ‘excellent.’
In the municipality’s annual evaluation of eateries, 1,446 outlets were graded excellent (A) and 443 received gold ratings (A+) during 2016.
In 2015, only 550 food outlets were deemed as excellent.
The rest of the establishments received B, C, D and E ratings according to their performances, with 800 eateries receiving low star ratings.
In a statement issued by Dubai Municipality on Sunday, it also revealed that 2,727 eateries received complaints for food violations.
Sultan Ali Al Tahir, Head of Food Inspection Department at Dubai Municipality, explained that 198 food outlets were closed temporarily during the past year due to high-risk violations.
“They were temporarily closed to let them modify their status and improve the technical and hygiene levels. A large number of them were allowed to re-start the work, after meeting the technical specifications and the necessary hygiene requirements,” he said.
The majority of temporary closures took place in the summer, as the heat affected the safety of food.
Hygiene standards
Al Tahir explained that the increased number of excellent ratings was due to restaurants implementing the municipality’s strategic food safety programs, and adhering to the emirate’s hygiene and technical standards
"This system targets the risks related to the food chain from raw materials to the consumer table," said Al Tahir.
"As for the low-level establishments, we applied the Intelligent Inspection Program, which was designed to identify, figure out and analyse the technical and hygiene risks.
“This has contributed significantly in raising the level of evaluation of the food establishments. The Hygiene Supervisor Program has resulted in reducing the total number of food outlets with low rating to four per cent only,” he said.
Inspection programs
In the last year, Dubai Municipality carried out 32,291 specialised visits, 32,485 routine visits and 1,807 random visits, with a total of 1,068 follow-ups carried out by the food inspection department.
He said that inspections during the past year focused on risk analysis and the separation of administrative and technical violations in determining the assessment of the establishment.
“If any serious violation is committed, it receives a red card. This card affects its final evaluation. It has to modify its status within a certain period, to get a high rating,” said Al Tahir.
