The Ministry of Municipality and Environment represented by Doha Municipality has launched a major awareness inspection campaign on food outlets at Katara and The Pearl-Qatar under a theme ‘Awareness for No Violations’.
The municipal inspectors armed with latest powerful devices to reveal bacteria and check the expiry date of fried oils and temperatures of foods were involved in the campaign.
The four-day campaign was participated by Director of Municipal Control Department in Doha Municipality Salem Hamoud Al Shafi; Head of Inspectors Unit, Health Control Department Mohammed Rashid Al Marri; and a number of inspectors, nutritionists accompanies by media persons.
The campaign aims to develop an integrated plan to train and educate all employees in food institutions on food safety methods of preserving and displaying food and correct methods of self-hygiene at work.
The objective of the campaign is also to educate consumers and school and university students on safe and correct ways of shopping and choose sound foods.
Salem Hamoud Al Shafi, Director of Municipal Control Department at Doha Municipality, revealed an integrated plan to train and educate different categories of society in the food establishments of the Municipality of Doha, through creating awareness to food handlers, consumers, students of schools and universities, as well as receiving public complaints and feedback round-the-clock through a dedicated team.
He stressed that the main objective of the work of the health supervision departments in the municipalities is to provide safe and healthy food to consumers, since there are many diseases that are transmitted through food and pose a serious threat to health, so be inspected and scrutinized at all stages of the food chain from farms to tables.
Consumers are also being educated through billboards at shopping complexes and through awareness brochures on the basics of food safety, as well as responding to their observations and inquiries through the ministry’s hotline 184, which operates around the clock, in addition to many other means of reporting.
Najla Abdulrahman Al Hail, Head of Health Control Department at Doha Municipality Municipal Control Department, said that the Ministry of Municipality and Environment has provided veterinary doctors and health inspectors with the latest tools and techniques that help them to carry out their tasks to the fullest and develop their skills in line with the latest inspection methods.
She said that these tools enable inspectors to determine the extent to which food outlets adhere to health and safety standards and take all corrective and awareness measures to avoid violations.
She said that the inspectors have tools that enable them to check temperatures throughout the food chain, as well as detect the bacterial number on surfaces and tools of preparation and the hands of workers.
In addition, she said that the device will ensure the validity of frying oils because of the risk to the health of consumers if used for long periods without change.
Mohammed Rashid Al Marri, Head of the Inspectors Unit in the section that the campaign aims to educate the public on the proper methods for the selection of food and safe. He pointed out that no violations were caught during the first day of the campaign.
