Oman destroys tainted frozen chicken

Oman has destroyed contaminated frozen chicken manufactured by Saudi Arabia's Al Wataniya Food Company, according to a top official at Oman's Ministry of Regional Municipality, Water Resources and Environment.

Said bin Darwish Al Alawi, the Director General of Health Control confirmed: "We have destroyed some of the products imported from Al Wataniya of Saudi Arabia."

He told Gulf News yesterday that they have destroyed packets of frozen chicken weighing 900gm with the manufacturing date of June 20, 2002 and 750gm, dated April 4, 2002.

The UAE authorities first alerted their Omani counterparts over the possibility of the Saudi product being contaminated with salmonella pathogen.

"We conducted our own tests and found that the products concerned were indeed contaminated with the salmonella pathogen." The Omani official added that they also ran tests on the other packets from Al Wataniya but they were not contaminated.

According to him, his department runs random checks on frozen and other food stuff in the market.

Engineer Khalil bin Hassan Al Baloushi, Deputy Director General of Health Control at the ministry and a member of the GCC Food Safety Committee, said that the decision to destroy the packets was in line with the other GCC member states.

He added that besides Oman, the UAE and Saudi Arabia have also taken similar steps after conducting tests on the products.

"We were also informed by the GCC to take precautionary measures like the authorities in the UAE have done," he added.

The health inspectors had collected samples of the Al Wataniya's poultry products directly from the market in different areas of Oman. "They have been destroyed nationwide thus it is difficult to say how many such packets have been destroyed," he said.

Salmonella is a type of bacteria that causes typhoid and many other infections of intestinal origin. Scientists have recorded more than 2,300 strains of salmonella pathogen.

The officials of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry have also been informed about the test results and the consequent decision, Al Baloushi said.