DM ensures a healthy and clean Dubai prior to DSF

In a meeting with presspersons on Sunday, Khalid Shareef, Assistant Director of Public Health Department and Head of Food Control Section, said the section had already started implementing an action plan for ensuring food safety in the emirate during DSF.

'All the special food outlets that operate at different DSF venues such as the Global Village, Al Riqqa, Al Muraqabat and Al Seef streets are licensed by the Food Control Section. We check their premises for health and hygiene standards and make sure that the employees hold valid health cards. All these procedures are in place to ensure that the DSF visitors get safe food according to international standards,' said Mr. Shareef.

He noted that there are some pavilions in the Global Village which offer indigenous delicacies to the visitors. For this purpose, they bring in cooks from their own countries. In this case, arrangements have been made with the Dubai Municipality clinic to speed up health card procedures for such staff. If they pass the medical fitness tests, health cards are issued in no time, he said, noting that there are roughly 40 people who come to Dubai for this purpose.

Sharif added that during DSF, special task forces comprising 31 persons would monitor food outlets in the DSF venues round-the-clock. They would take samples randomly from these outlets for lab tests and act on complaints from the public with regard to food poisoning or expired or damaged foods.

'During the past years, we didn't receive complaints about food poisoning from the public. However, there were complaints about the handling of the food items by some of the staff and such complaints are immediately dealt with,' said Mr. Shareef.

He noted that there exists a high level of awareness among owners of restaurants, cafeterias and other food outlets with regard to health and hygiene. This makes Dubai a safe food destination.

'With regard to the hotels', he said, the 'Safe Catering' programme initiated during the recent IMF-WB meetings will continue. Under the programme, each hotel is expected to comply with international food hygiene standards. Besides, if any hotel holds a programme for more than 200 persons, a representative of the Food Control Section will conduct spot checks on the food prepared to be served during the ceremony and take samples for lab tests, explained Mr. Shareef.

Hassan Makki, Assistant Director of the Environment Department and Head of Waste Services Section, said more than 200 labourers, supervisors and other senior staff will keep all DSF venues clean throughout the month-long festival. 'In coordination with the DSF organising committee, we have made available enough number of staff and equipment to clean the venues and clear the garbage,' he said, 'However, in a bid to reduce the waste and preserve the public cleanliness, the section would distribute pamphlets and brochures among the DSF visitors.'

Essa Al Ghaffari, Head of Deira Operations Unit at the Waste Services Section, said the focus of cleaning operations will be at the main DSF venues such as Global Village, Al Muraqabat and Al Riqqa Streets where an office of the environment department will be set up in order to control the two shifts of the cleaning workers and supervise the entire operation.