Dubai, 18 April 2021:  Dubai Municipality has closed down 53 food establishments during the first quarter of this year, all of them due to violating the Covid-19 protocols. Inspection campaigns are on in Ramadan, to ensure that food establishments meet the requirements for transporting, storing, preparing and displaying food products and materials.

Sultan Al Taher, Head of Food Inspection Section in the Municipality said that the Municipality officials conducted 13,775 inspection visits to food establishments during the first quarter of 2021, to ensure compliance with the precautionary measures for Covid-19 and the visits confirmed that 12,438 food establishments were complying with the food safety requirements.

He said that while 53 food outlets were closed during the first quarter, 1,133 other establishments were served with warnings and the most prominent violations that were detected were failure to adhere to social distancing, and failure to wear personal safety equipment such as masks and gloves during food preparation, and not using approved sterilization and disinfection materials.
“The Municipality inspectors check, during their monitoring visits, the daily follow-up records of workers’ hygiene, the sterilization and disinfection operations, in addition to ensuring that food safety requirements are applied while receiving food items, food preparation, storage, display at healthy temperatures, and the application of hygiene and sterilization procedures, to prevent cross-contamination as well as pest control operations,” added Al Taher.

He said that the Municipality's inspection teams carry out a number of routine inspection visits, based on the reports received from consumers, and also issue fines on violators.