Food safety gets top priority in Sharjah

Dr Juan Taylor; Dr Shaikha Rashaa Al Qasimi; Omer Ali Al Muhairi, head of food control section; and Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim, head of conformity at Sharjah Municipality; at the Sharjah Food Safety Programme Forum on Monday.

  Food safety should be the top priority for all public and private establishments engaged in food businesses because that is the main goal of the Food Safety Programme of the Sharjah Municipality. The municipality launched the second phase of the Sharjah Food Safety Programme (SFSP) during the second Food Safety Forum held on Monday, aiming to improve public health and protecting all community members in the emirate.
Riad Abdulla Aylan, Director-General of Sharjah Municipality, while addressing the forum, said: "Food safety and preservation is a joint community responsibility. We hear every day about many problems related to food safety. That is why we made it compulsory to implement the good health practices system (GHP) at all food establishments operating in Sharjah. This GHP represents the fundamental basis for the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) system, the most advanced food safety programme in the world, which is now implemented in all food establishments in Sharjah.
Dr Shaikha Rasha Al Qasimi, CEO of the SFSP, released the results of the first phase of the SFSP, indicating that 5,063 managers of the food service businesses operating in Sharjah have been trained as part of the programme, while the number of staff from these food businesses who were trained reached 3,437.
For her part, Dr Juan Taylor, TSI consultant, gave detailed demonstration about the best world practices included in the HACCP system adopted by Sharjah Municipality.
"Sharjah Municipality has succeeded in implementing HACCP as a preventative food safety system in which every step in the manufacture, storage and distribution of a food product is scientifically analyzed for microbiological, physical and chemical hazards.
Ahmed Hammod, from the IT department of the municipality, also provided information about the electronic services which have been introduced on the municipality's website to help the food service businesses join the SFSP.
afkarali@khaleejtimes.com