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Sunday, September 9, 2012

State eyes Dubai model to ensure food safety

The State Food Safety wing is looking to the Dubai Municipality Food Control Department to help it develop food safety manuals and food inspection checklists so that the food safety initiatives here can be made more scientific and standardised. The Dubai Municipality Food Control Department is already in talks with the Food Safety wing here on developing safety guidelines which are totally science-based and in drawing up a programme for the surveillance of food-borne illnesses.A formal collaboration with the Dubai municipality for initiatives in improving food safety is also being contemplated, said Biju Prabhakar, Commissioner of Food Safety.“We thought of seeking the assistance of Dubai Municipality Food Control Department because even though their food safety initiative is fairly nascent, it is fully backed by science, is well-streamlined and has found considerable acceptance in the food industry too,” Mr. Prabhakar said. Bobby Krishna, Senior Food Studies Officer in the Food Control Department of Dubai Municipality, told The Hindu here on Saturday that food safety was a global concern and had to be approached in a larger perspective, as a crucial component of public health, and a vital element of economy, especially with Kerala exploring its tourism potential in a big way.

“Just as it happened in Kerala, in Dubai too, the food safety drive gained momentum in 2009 following the death of two young children, reportedly due to food poisoning. It gave us the impetus to drive hard — the licensing process, grading of food businesses, hygiene and safety standards, classification of food items, and the shelf life of each… everything was fully backed by evidence. We also invested quite a lot on educating those in the business about the basics of food safety, like hygienic food handling and preventing cross-contamination etc,” Mr. Krishna said.

First step

The first step in having a streamlined food safety management system is in getting everyone in the food business to take licences/registrations. There has to be a grading system for hotels/ eateries so that each works within its scope. “You need to develop a good food safety team, which includes food safety experts, risk assessors, including bio chemistry and microbiology experts, epidemiologists, all backed with international food safety resources. Food inspectors have to undergo rigorous training and follow standard procedure,” he said. As for street vendors, he suggested that the government create ‘safe zones’ in various parts of the city where all safe processes and infrastructure for producing safe food could be provided by the government. Vendors could be given subsidy for utilising these resources. The approach had to be top-down and gradual.
The recent initiative of the Dubai municipality, called the Person-in-Charge (PIC) programme — an initiative that Kerala could emulate — was expected to make Dubai attain world-class standards in food safety.
“PIC programme means that in every food business there should be a responsible person who will undergo a training programme in food safety, equivalent to UK’s Ofqual –accredited food safety standards. The PICs will be responsible for ensuring that food safety norms and hygienic practices were followed by food handlers in the outlet. This is a U.S. concept, but Dubai municipality will be the first to introduce the concept, with the condition that PIC certification awarding bodies too should have ISO 17024 certification, Mr. Krishna says.

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