DOHA: About 100 municipal inspectors monitor food outlets across the city as part of this year’s Eid Al Adha preparations, officials have said.
Mohammed Yousef Al Sayed, head of the health control section at Doha municipality, said that they were intensifying inspection of food establishments in Doha to ensure their compliance with health rules and safeguard the health of their customers, in preparation for Eid Al Adha.
Ninety inspectors are being deployed to places where food is produced, processed or sold, especially abattoirs and meat shops, a local Arabic daily reported.
Al Sayed said that they had allocated 29 veterinary doctors to work in public abattoirs and ensure that only healthy animals are slaughtered, and that the slaughter is done in a safe way and without undue delays.
He said the veterinary doctors would check the animals before they enter the abattoirs, and after slaughter they will check to ensure that the meat is fit for human consumption.
He said it was normal for the authorities to intensify inspection of food outlets ahead of occasions like Eid Al Adha, Eid Al Fitr and Ramadan, and that the inspectors would visit all kinds of food outlets, especially shopping malls and supermarkets, and check all foods, especially meat.
The inspection teams would also visit shops selling sweets, chocolates, nuts and baked items, restaurants and fruit and vegetable shops.
The inspections will also cover other establishments that have a bearing on public health, like beauty salons, barber shops and laundries.
Al Sayed said Law No. 17 of 2005 gives inspectors the right to search places of sale and display, storage, transportation, manufacturing, production and trading of food items, and to monitor the implementation of laws and regulations related to food safety. It also allows them to take legal measures against those caught violating the rules.
Municipal inspectors will also be receiving complaints round the clock, and a team of inspectors would be dispatched to investigate all complaints.
Al Rayyan municipality has announced that it is stepping up monitoring of shops selling sweets, restaurants and kitchens ahead of Eid Al Adha.
The municipality is collecting samples from shops selling poultry, fish and meat and sending them to the central laboratory of the Supreme Council of Health to make sure that all products in the market conform to health rules.
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