Muscat Municipality Destroys 27 Tons of Poultry and 8000 KG of Fish
2081 Visits ends up issuing 92 violations and shuts down 6 food stores in one week
Qais Al-Kashry: Central lab for examining the samples accurately, and ensuring all facilities sticking with health systems
By: Ibrahim Al-Hasny
Within the intense activity for Health Inspection Office of the Municipality of Muscat at Port Sultan Qaboos and in cooperation with veterinary quarantine specialists of Ministry of Agriculture, 27 tons of contaminated poultry was destroyed, and an amount of rotten fish of 8,000 kilograms, and they monitored number of green fungus in bakeries in transport vehicles unfit for eating, and they destroyed it and shut down number of shops and issued health irregularities within sections inspection efforts of municipal directorates to protect consumers from fraud and food corruption.
Contaminated Poultry
Qais Bin Sulaiman Kosheri Director of Department of Health at Muscat Municipality explained that specialists at the municipality and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries carried out the monitoring and destroying (27 tons and 386 kilograms) of contaminated poultry with Salmonella. Where tests proved that received from the quarantine that the quantities mentioned carry a high proportion of Salmonella, which is one of the largest sources of food poisoning, they also noted the validity of the used cover to store the food and the spread of non-natural scents of it.
Rotten Fish
Specialist at health inspection office of Sultan Qaboos Port`s at Muscat Municipality Destroyed nearly 8000 KG of imported frozen fish from India which was discovered that it`s not suitable for consuming because of bad smell due to poor storage inside the container which led to the loss of freezing, Where reports from the Agriculture Ministry`s veterinary quarantine office proved that the quantities mentioned unfit for human consumption.
Quantities have been sent to disposal under the supervision of specialists from the Muscat Municipality and quarantine.
The inspection and control of food sections carried out during the period of (19-23 May) (1028) inspecting visitation resulted in the closure of (6) shops due to the lack of meeting health requirements required for the conduct of the activity, and there was (88) health violation report.
Also they destroyed foodstuffs unfit for human consumption amounted to 23 kilos and (48) cartons in addition to (204) pie due to lack of availability of health requirements in the means of transport. As well as destroying (123) of the tools used in cooking unfit for use, they also destroyed 51 cartons of expired Chips.
Citrus market
The specialists at central citrus market b also made (1053) inspection visit during where four violation reports were issued and they destroyed (13737) kilograms of vegetables and fruits unfit for human consumption because it was infected with mold and due to faulty storage.
Intensive efforts
The director of the Department of Health at Muscat Municipality that SAIs of departments and citrus market and the ports that are supervised by the municipality and in coordination with other agencies is making intensive efforts to deter fraud and the emphasis on commercial food control in order to reach the ultimate goal of consumer protection.
He added that the supervisory teams are qualified to inspect and search for such cases, and you can imagine the size of the effort and time necessary to detect such cases, quite the opposite when comes to you a report sets out the violation and place of the commission and all you have to do is control process for that incident.
Central Laboratory
On the role of the central laboratory in the examination of food samples, Qais bin Suleiman Kosheri indicated that regulatory bodies at the municipality takes food samples of various kinds to the central lab of the municipal to conduct laboratory tests necessary to ensure their suitability and compliance with the adopted standards and specifications, and there is coordination often with the Laboratory of the Ministry of Regional Municipalities and Water Resources and other government laboratories in case there was a need to make other tests that are not available in the laboratory of Muscat Municipality, or for the purposes of studies and research, stressing that in each directorate of the five municipal there`s an office for health matters, and among the most important work of this department is food inspection, where there is an assistant director of food control and head of a department and number of inspectors are distributed according to the density of the region and the number of shops and business establishments, where the work is divided on three shifts a day starting from five o`clock in the morning until midnight or to the next morning in some districts according to the order of importance, so the food inspectors totaling (84) inspectors are distributed on the different regions according to daily work programs, where there are teams distributed on regions depending on the number of stores and what it sells, and also these sections are working with shifts system in holidays and national occasions, in addition to receiving all complaints and reports from consumers, either through the Communications center of the municipality of (1111) or by direct contact and attendance to these departments were the necessary actions towards each individual communication are taken.
Food inspection system
The director of Health Department of Muscat Municipality said that out of the keenness of Muscat Municipality on the general health of the consumer and providing better services, and in line with the approach that contributes to raise the level of those services provided to the consumer and complement the role of educating to improve health level of food facilities and ensure healthy foods for consumers, the departments of Food Control at municipality represented in the departments of inspection and food control at the General directorates of Muscat Municipality (at Upper Matrah, Seeb, Busher, Amrat and Kiryat) in addition to central citrus market and two health inspection offices in Muscat International Airport and Port Sultan Qaboos that carries out many of the tasks and responsibilities which the most important of it is inspection and monitoring of different food facilities such as restaurants, cafes, factories, hotels, stores and shops selling food, vegetables, etc., from the earliest stages of production, processing and up to display and sell those products and give it healthy to the hands of consumers, the inspections operations is started from the initial visit to the leases through the implementation of health requirements regulations and quality control of raw materials involved in the manufacturing that is free of any contaminants, as well as to ensure storing it in a healthy way and appropriate temperatures as for the type of food item, also they make sure of ways of defrosting frozen goods in the appropriate way and make sure cooking food at high temperatures to ensure the elimination of pathogens, and also monitoring methods of storing cooked food in dedicated devices for this purpose to ensure offering it to the consumer healthy, safe and free of any contaminants.
Health status
He pointed out that through surprising inspection visits they make sure of the health status of workers in these facilities and the extent of their physical health and ensuring that they are free from infectious diseases and comply with the laws and regulations for dealing with food, and contrary to food inspection activities, the regulatory bodies at the municipality are concerned also with monitoring facilities related to public health like barbershop and hairdressing for Men`s, and beauty and health clubs and laundry for women.
Rules and Regulations
In field of legislation and laws regulating control work on food establishments and regulations of the health requirements for practicing activities related to public health, the director of Health Department of stressed that the Local Order No. (1/2006) for dealing with the protecting public health, had determined the specified frames for the conduct of these activities and determined the duties entrusted to the food inspection teams and methods of performing work, and also determined the foundations to be followed in handling food in food establishments, and determined in Article (2) that the municipality have the right to close food establishments and shops related directly to public health in case of practicing the activity without getting license, or cheat in selling food, or in case they found insects or rodents or leaks in sewers, or if you do sell or dispose confiscated food or beverages by the municipality, or the occurrence of collective poisoning or epidemic diseases caused by food and beverage sold in the shop, or non-compliance with health requirements, or not to correct health violation, or hiring workers infected with contagious diseases, or in emergency cases decided by the competent authorities.
Health requirements
The Kosheri pointed out that the administrative decision No. (168/2011) for the issuance of regulations for health requirements for health related activities, has identified health requirements for the exercising of all activities, including food activities and other activities related to public health, which included a list of the requirements of public health for all activities, including requirements for the building and electrical connections, water, sanitation and hygiene, pest control, security and safety requirements and requirements for manpower, the municipality is also working continuously on the development and modernization of health requirements as required by the latest developments in this aspect.