Compulsory hygiene course for food workers

ABU DHABI // All food industry workers in the emirate must undergo compulsory training from today under measures introduced by the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority. Courses for workers in kitchens, cafes, restaurants and many other locations will begin in the capital this morning, the government news agency WAM reported yesterday. The certification programme, coupled with a number of other steps taken by the Food Control Authority in recent months, aims to ensure that food outlets and everyone involved in the industry observe the highest hygiene standards. Companies that do not ensure their staff have the certificate risk being fined, although no sums were disclosed yesterday. One of the men running the courses said the certification programme was an inevitable consequence of the way Abu Dhabi was developing as a global city. The courses, which will last a minimum of six hours, will be followed by an exam held at Al Hosn University, either in Abu Dhabi or Al Ain. Staff will be trained in how to handle food correctly, with the authority aiming for everyone working in the industry in the emirate to be trained by 2012. The new courses, run by three Abu Dhabi companies and to be held throughout the emirate, will be conducted in a variety of languages, including English and Arabic. The tough new measures follow new laws introduced in May to punish businesses who serve unhygienic food or prepare it in unsatisfactory conditions. Under a law passed earlier in the summer, all food establishments have a duty to train their staff in food hygiene and food safety. The three companies running the courses are RMK-The Experts, Johnson Diversey-Thani Murshid and TUV Middle East. Dr Rafiq Khatib, manager of RMK-The Experts, will hold his first course for 15 workers at Le Meridien hotel in Abu Dhabi tomorrow. "It is a basic training programme explaining the principles of food safety, food hygiene and personal hygiene. It is a short course, only a couple of hours, but a very important one," he said. "Everybody, from the cook to the waiter to the shopkeeper, needs to know all this basic information. We will teach them the hazards, how to identify, control and avoid them." Dr Khatib, who also trains food inspectors for the Government, said the legislation came at a good time. "It is not too late to introduce this. We will do it gradually and we expect businesses to react positively to it. They have been looking at this for about two years, but it takes time to prepare a proper strategy and make it work." Under existing legislation, there is no certification programme encompassing the entire food industry in the capital. Instead, individual licences and certificates are issued to each sector of the industry. A restaurant or food shop in Abu Dhabi cannot, for example, open without having been issued a food-control certificate by the Food Control Authority, ranging in price from Dh400 (US$109) for a date shop to Dh2,000 for a "first-class restaurant". Other documentation issued by the authority includes certificates for export, food transport vehicle, foodstuff disposal and slaughterhouse management. Those papers will still be issued in conjunction with the new certificates. Fawaz Skp, 23, who works at the front desk of his brother's business, the Ruchi Restaurant, said: "It's a good thing. We have to satisfy our customers by serving good food and providing good service." Customers, he said, often asked about the restaurant's hygiene standards. Currently, the office staff trained new employees about proper hand-washing and food safety but Mr Skp believed that government regulations would give his customers more confidence in the establishment. The measures announced yesterday came four months after the authority affirmed its determination to tighten control on food safety. At the launch of the authority's five-year strategic plan in April, chairman Rashed al Shariqi said: "Our goal is to introduce regulations to cover all aspects of food safety, 100 per cent." A total of 86 initiatives will be launched by the authority by 2012, from healthy-eating campaigns to tighter regulation of livestock farms. Hotels and restaurants that fail to comply with health and safety standards also face being named in a "hall of shame" on the authority's website, with their owners facing court if they try to reopen a blacklisted establishment. Under laws introduced in May, anyone caught serving food considered harmful to health faces being fined between Dh30,000 and Dh200,000 and being sentenced to at least three months in prison. Anyone caught selling food with "unauthentic" or non-food ingredients faces a fine of between Dh20,000 and Dh150,000 and a minimum of two months in jail. Dr Khatib said the move was necessary as Abu Dhabi attracted more and more people, with the city's population expected to increase from around 930,000 to almost 1.3 million by 2012 and the number of tourists to increase from 1.8 million a year to almost 3.3 million. rhughes@thenational.ae jgerson@thenational.ae