RIYADH: Riyadh Municipality has prepared a 30-day plan for monitoring restaurants and food markets in order to guarantee that unhygienic food is not sold in Ramadan, Director General of Environmental Health in the Riyadh mayor's office Suleiman Al-Bathi told Arab News.
“The strategy is to focus on food outlets and see that no violations are committed by them,” Al-Bathi said. The official added that other departments sharing the responsibility of implementing the new plan include the municipality’s Administration for Public Comfort and Safety and the Health Monitoring Department and women's units in branch municipalities. “As part of the plan, inspectors of all concerned departments will check the licenses of food outlets and similar establishments and ensure that they engage only in activities specified in their license. The inspectors will also examine workers’ health cards and make sure that the establishments maintain a mandatory health register for their workers,” the official said.
Inspectors will also ensure that the workers are careful to maintain personal hygiene by keeping finger nails short, being careful about hair and wearing clean clothes. They will also see that the hands of the workers in food establishments do not have cuts and wounds, that they use gloves and head covers and maintain general cleanness.
The inspectors will also ensure that the food served at the outlets is safe, that utensils are clean, that refrigerators and cold storages are working properly and that warehouses are clean. They will also check if there are any holes in drainage pipes or crevices in walls and floors through which insects and rodents might enter, he said. “The inspecting teams, which will work two shifts in mornings and evenings, will hold inspections every day of the month without exception. The evening inspections will focus on restaurants, kitchens, butchers, small restaurants, fast food places, bakeries and shops selling samboosa and other special dishes for iftar.”
While each establishment will be visited twice per month, the number of inspectors going to any area will be determined by the number of shops in the area.
