Tawam Hospital announces HACCP certification

"Food safety at hospitals present daily challenges due to the large volumes of food prepared and the time it takes to distribute food throughout the hospital. By implementing food safety audits and ensuring that staff at Tawam adhere to food safety standards and procedures we have been able to increase patient satisfaction and meet the HACCP requirements," said Mr.Michael E. Heindel, CEO of Tawam Hospital.

Serving on average 1,000,000 meals a year, Tawam implemented the HACCP standards in June 2008 with the aim of providing and serving the best hospital food in the UAE and increasing patient satisfaction.

Commenting on the new food choices that will be available in May at Tawam Hospital, Maryam Al Dhaheri/Manager of Support Service at Tawam Hospital said:

"We have already made significant improvements to the choice, quality, taste, and presentation of our food. With regards to choice, patients will soon be able to select their food preferences from a restaurant style menu."

The HACCP certification is an international standard developed by the American FDA that defines the requirements of safe food management.

HACCP helps to prevent, as close to 100 percent as possible, harmful contamination in the food supply by encouraging catering departments to abide by the HACCP seven principles:

1.Analyze hazards.
2.Identify critical control points.
3.Establish preventative measures with critical limits for each control point.
4.Establish procedures to monitor the critical control points.
5.Establish corrective actions to be taken when monitoring shows that a critical limit has not been met.
6.Establish procedures to verify that the system is working properly.
7.Establish effective records to document the HACCP system and take action to correct potential problems.

HACCP focuses on identifying and preventing hazards and allows investigators to monitor a hospital's progress. The system also helps organizations focus on the hazards that affect food safety and hygiene.

Tawam Hospital, which is managed by John Hopkins Medicine is owned and operated by SEHA, the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company [which is responsible for the curative activities of all the public hospitals and clinics in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.