Dubai, 26 Mar. 2013 (WAM)-- Dubai eateries and other food establishments have a comprehensive food code from yesterday which they have to adopt to ensure international standards of food safety are followed.

With the Municipality releasing the code, Dubai became first in the region to produce such a guideline that could be used by the entire food industry.

"Dubai?s vision is to establish a world-class food safety system that helps provide safe food to the residents and the several millions that visit the Emirate each year. In addition, we would like the system to ensure safe production and distribution of food and also its safe import and export," said Khalid Shareef, Director, Food Control Department at Dubai Municipality.

"We would like the system to be so comprehensive and appealing that others are encouraged to use it as a model. Our vision will become a reality only when the government, food industry, service providers, educational and research organisations and the consumers collectively commit to work together and apply sound principles of food safety based on science and research" he explained.

He said the Municipality has already begun the process by promoting a positive food safety culture among food establishments in the Emirate, by urging the managements to be responsible and accountable through proprietary Person In-Charge (PIC) programme introduced in 2010.

"Through the Food Code, we are now building on the foundations laid by the PIC and other regulatory programs, which arm them with the necessary knowledge about the systems and processes needed to ensure an effective food safety culture," he added.

"Food Code is a comprehensive document that lists the requirements that food establishments have to follow being produced as a result of an integrated approach the civic body developed to ensure food safety from the place of primary production up to the point of consumption" said Asia Abdul Wahab Murad, Head of Planning& Development at DM food control department.

According to Basheer Hassan Yousuf, Food safety expert at DM food control department, Food Code is designed to assist the Person In-Charge (PICs) at food establishments to understand their obligations and to carry out operations as per the requirement.

"A notable point regarding the code is that, it not only talks about laws but explaining how and why. When the code says about a certain temperature level to keep on food, why and how is detailed just after, in simple language, with the intention of making concerned persons full aware of what they do" he added further.

It is developed also to help the food industry and the law-enforcement officers understand the ways and means to meet the standards and objectives mentioned in the GCC, Federal and Local regulations, he said.

It is noted that releasing a comprehensive food code in Dubai to be applied in various phases of food chain namely, import, export, production ,processing, preparation, handling and serving is highly important given the high number of visitors who fly in Dubai annually and the huge amount of food stuffs imported in through borders.

According to figures with civic body, in 2012 more than 8 million ton food items were imported to Dubai from some 180 foreign countries. And, Dubai has more than 13,000 food establishments including 3,000 restaurants and 480 hotels.

latheef

Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2013.