Bad Practices in Restaurants in the UAE - Essay Example

?Bad Practices in Restaurants in the UAE Introduction: The presence of restaurants all over the world has led the people to adopt a certain kind of craze for foods which are at times prepared in the unhealthiest conditions. Would we ever like to eat the adorned dishes if we see the real picture of the dirty kitchen where they are prepared? Or, the unhygienic chef whom we vouch for when we take the name of a preferred restaurant? No person can vouchsafe for the food which he is savoring. In U.A.E due to work pressure and inability to cook, people often visit the restaurants to eat. As U.A.E has turned into a major business center of the world, various kinds of restaurants have emerged serving different types of cuisines. As these restaurants prepare various kinds of cuisines, it becomes difficult for them to abide by all the norms of hygiene. Almost most of them nowadays, do not comply with the norms devised by the food control authority of the country. The paper will argue how the restaurants and food control authority ignore hygienic practices in restaurants of UAE. It gives an account of the causes leading to these bad practices, the final outcome of neglect and the solutions some of which are reflected in terms of the steps taken by the authority. The study would argue on the basis of secondary research as well as results from primary survey to capture the choice pattern of public. A brief interview and survey was conducted on a randomly drawn sample of 50 people online and at the American University of Sharjah to understand on what basis the customers choose restaurants to go and eat. Causes: The restaurants in UAE are facing severe hygiene troubles as all the restaurants do not employ qualified or trained employees. To maintain low costs, the employers generally employ untrained and unprofessional people in their restaurants. “One in every three people responsible for hygiene in Dubai’s restaurants is not qualified” (Malek, May23, 2012). Another problem is the language barrier. As the employees come from a multicultural background, they fail to understand the local language and thus also fail in passing the training programme. Thus, due to this, the employers also get no other option other than appointing them. Almost 80 per cent of food outlet staff does not speak Arabic or English. (Malek, Oct 19, 2011). It is understood that Indians make up 65 per cent of the food industry workforce, Asian comprise 20 per cent of workers, with Arabs making up 12 per cent. The results point out that the majority of workers are not receiving efficient hygiene training (Shaheen and Dajani, Mar 1, 2010). The lack of a culture of hygiene and food safety in restaurants and food outlets is a key reason for illness.  For example, the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority instructed the closing of Al Tazaj Fakieh Grilled Chicken, a restaurant in the Hamdan Centre building along Hamdan Bin Mohammad Street, for recurrent breach of food safety policy.(Kader, April 18, 2011). Sometimes the food is also not prepared in proper clean environment and furnished place. It therefore leaves a risk behind in the whole making of the food (Occupational Food Handling and Food Preparation Areas, February, 2012, p.9). Out of the 130 restaurants inspected, 8 were accused of unhygienic practices while 95 have been alerted – “Offences included poor ventilation, unclean cooking areas and piling food in refrigerators in a way that could lead to cross contamination” (The National Staff, 2012). The Ibrahim restaurant was ordered to shut down after the food authority in Abu Dhabi found “cockroaches and other insects in the restaurant’s kitchen and dining area” (Abu Dhabi food inspectors cracking down on restaurants, 2012) . Some related issues can also be identified. For instance, problems like temperature control, contamination and food poisoning are witnessed due to unhygienic methods employed in the cooking process. Controlling temperatures of food in high-risk outlets such as hotels, cafeterias, restaurants and catering companies is a serious trouble with hot food, essentially in bulk-cooking measures (Malek, May23, 2012). Results: Due to various problems found in the restaurants, both employers and employees are fined to follow safety rules the next time. For instance, monetary penalty of Dh10,000 was imposed each on a cook, his supervisor, a restaurant and a hospital doctor in 2011 when accused for the deaths of two children caused by food poisoning. The Dubai Court of Misdemeanours tracked that the certain restaurant personnel had dishonored hygiene set of laws as reflected in the process of preserving food, which allowed bacteria to cultivate and therefore made the children unwell (Al Amir, Feb 28, 2011). The strict measures taken by the food control authority can therefore work well if pursued seriously. The most severe result can be loss of reputation and trust not only in the restaurants banned or alerted, but in the other restaurants of the nation as well. This is harmful for tourism and hence can affect the economy adversely. Once the faith is lost it would be difficult to restore it and re modify the choice pattern of the people. It can be concluded from the interview that 70 per cent of the people consider that a clean and well furnished kitchen does not always mean that the cooks and other employees will be clean. Around 74 percent said they would not eat at their favorite restaurant if they know their kitchens are not clean. Majority of the people maintained that if they come to know that their favorite restaurants did not follow hygienic practices then they would not visit them again. Around 64 per cent in the survey stated that they did not suffer illness after eating in the restaurants of U.A.E. Those people who had fell sick after eating at the restaurants; they said that the restaurants were mainly responsible for the bad food. So from our results it does not show that majority of the people did not fall ill after taking food at the restaurants of UAE. Hence we can say that the measures taken by the food control authority might have shown positive results to some extent and helped in spreading awareness to the restaurants which are not yet ordered to close down. Solutions: In order to curb the unhygienic methods applied in the restaurants, the food control authority has devised a variety of norms. They also keep a regular track and also give field visit in order to avoid unsafe methods employed in the restaurants. All restaurants should essentially have a named, trained “Person in Charge” (PiC) monitoring food storage and preparation. (Malek, May23, 2012). Beside this, food temperature monitoring, personal hygiene, water safety and reporting if staff or customers are ill feature prominently on the municipality's checklist (Kannan, Jan 25, 2012). Continuous monitoring of food displayed on buffets or inside the refrigerator, as well as incoming goods from suppliers and staff's personal hygiene can ensure complete safety in having the food. In order to remove untrained people from the restaurants, penalties have been arranged effectively so that the owners appointed staffs who would be both trained and certified. More than 7,000 staff from more than 4,500 outlets has already been trained but the municipality estimates there are more than 10,000 food businesses in the Emirate. It is important to make them aware of safety requirements. The employees in UAE come from different multicultural backgrounds and thus by parting them proper training, will add to their knowledge base and also give a practical approach to day-to-day situations (Kannan, Jan 25, 2012). The training process should include teaching in chilling food, cooking, cleaning, and keep away from cross-contamination through good personal hygiene (Nameth, July 30, 2010). Enlightening staff on significance of hygiene and food handling can only be attained by continuous training and monitoring. To get rid of all kinds of unhygienic methods, some important guidelines should be followed and maintained. All food establishments should employ one PiC (Person in charge) to look after the food establishment functions that could have an impact on the safety of the food. The PiC should offer effective supervision in implementing safe food practices, conduct regular inspection of the food premises, address potential food risks, and, where necessary, take appropriate corrective action (Food Code, 2013, p30). Restaurants, cafeterias, supermarkets and caterers who fall short of employing a "person in charge" of food safety and hygiene are almost fined up to Dh2,000 (Kannan, Jan 25, 2012). The restaurant owners should take all practical methods to ensure that contaminated food is not brought and used in the restaurant. It should specify the suppliers about the desired safety and quality of the foods delivered at the restaurants. They should receive food from sources that are approved legally by Food Control Department. These food sources should have license to function in the United Arab Emirates. All food products received at a food premise should be correctly packaged and labeled, according to requisites provided by the Food Control Department or any other pertinent standard such as the Gulf Standards. All ingredients used in food preparation should be inspected prior to their use. The restaurant owners should not use food additives that are banned by the Food Control Department. It should be seen that raw and ready-to-eat foods should be kept separately and the temperature should be always taken care of. Frozen foods must be thawed promptly in a way that would check the fast rise of pathogenic and spoilage bacteria. Throughout the procedure of thawing, the microbiological count should not surpass the limits mentioned in the applicable product standard. In order to prevent food borne illness, too much time for cooling of high risk food should be avoided. All restaurants should keep a documented training programme to ensure that all food handlers are trained to a level of food hygiene professionally and to the type of work they undertake. The employees should have a regular workshop with the municipal inspectors (Al Serkal, March 27, 2013). A close check on the sanitation of the workers should be ensured by the employer. The most recent municipal food policy opened in Dubai in 2013, states, that food stores not only have to promise that non-halal food items are stored up and distinguished from other food products. Even the menu lists have to mainly state the food allergies that might affect the diners. “According to the Food Code, the most serious allergic food items – such as shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, soy beans, sesame seeds, fish, egg, milk and gluten – have to be clearly labeled in jars and menus so that they will not contaminate other food items. The new rule comes into effect during the next two years.” (Al Serkal, March 27, 2013). The food control authority if detects loopholes in safety measures undertaken by the restaurants, then they impose heavy penalty to the restaurant owners (Kannan, Jan 25, 2012). All the components of bad practices should be effectively monitored and be on the checklist of the municipality. Conclusion: There has been a massive increase of death rate of people eating in restaurants as the restaurant authorities do not seem to follow neither local or international codes of safety for selection and preparation of foods. There have been other instances when the food control authority has undertaken stringent measures to cease unsafe methods carried in the restaurants. Though it cannot be said emphatically that the food practices in all or most restaurants of UAE are unsafe, evidence says that proper care is necessary to implement awareness amongst the staff and the strict control measures of the food control authority should be continued in order to produce effective outcome. References “Abu Dhabi food inspectors cracking down on restaurants”, (2012), 7DaysinDubai, retrieved on May 18, 2013 from: http://www.7daysindubai.com/Abu-Dhabi-food-inspectors-cracking-restaurants/story-15726632-detail/story.html Al Serkal, M.M., (March 27, 2013), Dubai restaurants: Food Code will increase costs, Gulf News. Retrieved on May15th, 2013: http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/health/dubai-restaurants-food-code-will-increase-costs-1.1163235 Al Amir, S, (Feb 28, 2011), Chef to pay blood money for children's food deaths, The National, Retrieved on May15th, 2013 http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/chef-to-pay-blood-money-for-childrens-food-deaths Food Code, (April 2013) Dubai Municipality, Retrieved on May14th, 2013: http://www.foodsafe.ae/contentfiles/uploads/Food_Code_English_interactive.pdf Kader, B.A, (April 18, 2011), Abu Dhabi restaurant shut down for ignoring repeated warnings, authority says, Gulf News. Retrieved on May15th, 2013: http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/health/abu-dhabi-restaurant-shut-down-for-ignoring-repeated-warnings-authority-says-1.795208 Kannan, P, Jan 25 (2012) Fines for firms flouting food rules, The National, Retrieved on May14th, 2013: http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/fines-for-firms-flouting-food-rules Malek, C, (Oct 19, 2011), Clean break in hygiene training for food outlets, The National, Retrieved on May15th, 2013: http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/clean-break-in-hygiene-training-for-food-outlets Malek, C. (May23, 2012), One in three Dubai restaurant hygiene staff 'not qualified'. The National. Retrieved on May14th, 2013: http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/one-in-three-dubai-restaurant-hygiene-staff-not-qualified Nameth, A, (July 30, 2010), Abu Dhabi Food Safety Agency Issues Warning, Retrieved on May15th, 2013 http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/07/hygiene-warning-by-abu-dhabis-food-safety-agency/#.UZMqBKJ0wZc Occupational Food Handling and Food Preparation Areas, (February, 2012). Retrieved on May15th,2013: http://www.adehsms.ae/Documents/ADEHSMS/03_Regulatory_Instruments/Codes_Practice/AD%20EHS%20RI%20%20-%20CoP%20-%2019.0%20-%20Occupational%20Food%20Handling%20and%20Food%20Preparation%20Areas.pdf Shaheen, K and Dajani, H, (March1, 2010), Most food workers fail hygiene courses, The National, Retrieved on May15th, 2013 http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/most-food-workers-fail-hygiene-courses The National Staff (2012), 80 % of restaurants break law, Abu Dhabi inspectors find, The National, retrieved on May 18, 2013 from: http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/80-of-restaurants-break-law-abu-dhabi-inspectors-find Read More