Dubai will establish an “effective foodborne disease surveillance” investigation system within the next 12 months, according to Dubai Municipality food safety specialist, Bobby Thulasi.
Speaking at The Big F&B Forum, Bobby said the system would become an integral tool in tracing the source of contamination and disease and would help in preventing outbreaks.
While such measures cannot guarantee the complete safety of all foods, they will greatly eliminate the cases of food related illnesses.
As part of the measures, from January 2016, kitchens must be designed and laid out in accordance with new guidelines. In addition, the primary measures the municipality team will promote include:
Adequate hand washing
Disinfection of fruit and veg
Disinfection of contact surfaces
Adequate separation of raw and cooked food
Adequate hot and cold holding and use of proper equipment for such.
A card system will be used to identify issues ranging from critical (red) to caution (yellow) and acceptable (green). Those establishments with no violations will receive a “name and fame” recognition and for all suppliers it will be mandatory to display green cards and clients will have a right to ask the reason behind a supplier having a yellow or red card.
