Image of a food inspection by Baladiya officials.
Doha: Food Safety and Environmental Health department of the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) in coordination with other ministries concerned has implemented strict measures under its nationwide campaign to curb the spread of COVID-19 at food outlets and factories for processing foods.
“The campaign is successful as it helped the food outlets and factories to avoid violation of health rules and preventive and precautionary measures which are inevitable to curb the infection,” said Wasan Abdullah Al Baker, Director of Food Safety and Environmental Health at MoPH while talking to Qatar TV yesterday.
She said Food Safety and Environmental Health department covered over 120 major food outlets and about 50 food processing factories under its inspection campaign.
“The campaign focused on preventive and precautionary measures to curb the spread of coronavirus by enforcing a slew of health rules based on the recommendations of World Health Organization,” said Al Baker.
“The Ministry is carrying out inspection of food outlets and food processing factories in coordination with the Ministry of Municipality and Environment and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to ensure the compliance of health rules and safety measures,” said Al Baker.
She said hypermarkets are required to make a special focus on proper storage of food items, applying health rules on food handlers related to wearing face masks and gloves and availability of disinfected materials.
“The hypermarkets and major food outlets should also keep sterilizing surfaces and floors which could carry the virus and educating the workers and food handlers about the preventive and protection measures to curb the spread of COVID-19,” said Al Baker.
She said that the outlets are also asked to inform immediately about the suspected cases of coronavirus if any worker showed the symptoms. “The trolleys for shopping should be disinfected with proper sanitising materials. The companies which provide food delivery services are also required to comply certain rules and regulations,” said Al Baker.
She said that in factories the focus of monitoring is also on workers and transporting vehicles which should be disinfected and sterilised in a proper manner. “The workers should wear proper uniforms, masks and gloves and undergo proper disinfection process before entering in the factories. The factories are being monitored on daily basis to check especially the risk points with the chances of infection,” said Al Baker.
