Dubai: Dubai Municipality on Sunday denied rumours that the popular drink Vimto contains carcinogenic substances.
Khalid Sharif Al Awadhi, executive director of Food Control at Dubai Municipality, said a message circulating on social media was not issued by an official source and is untrue.
“The message is poorly phrased and, as usual, meant to scare consumers by making bogus claims that it contains carcinogens. The food control department debunked the same rumours in previous years,” he said.
This rumour tends to resurface every year before Ramadan.
He said the product is in line with the safety guidelines approved by local bodies, as well as regional and international food safety bodies.
Al Awadhi said that there has not been any official warning or notification issued from the UAE or other countries, explaining that the UAE, represented by the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, are part of a notification system across the Gulf region, which obliges all countries to send notifications immediately on detection of any food safety incidents.
The municipality also has a registration system for all food items, which classifies the food after ensuring that all ingredients are safe. The system also allows the municipality to track the source of the food item, the importing company, distributors and any other required data.
He added that all imported, manufactured and sold products in Dubai, including Vimto, are subjected to a tight regulatory mechanism that includes field inspection and sampling to assess any risks.
Vimto has undergone those tests periodically and there was no evidence that the product is harmful.
“However, we will take random samples from the market and test them again,” he said.
Al Awadhi urged the public not to heed rumours, and not to forward such rumours before checking if there is any truth to them.
People should call Dubai Municipality on 800900 to check if the messages they are receiving about food products in Dubai are true.
