Muscat Municipality intensifies its Services for the Holy Month
- The central slaughterhouse uses cadres and additional agencies.
Air- conditioned hall will be established soon for slaughterhouse customers.
- Intensive health visitations to control food and restaurants and instructions of meats purchase.
- Umbrella of citrus market from 5 A.M till 2 P.M and retail shops till 11 P.M.
- Call center (1111) to receive reports and proposals.
Written by: Ibrahem Al-Hosny
The service agencies of directorates and Muscat Municipality Units intensifies its preparations for the holy Ramadan month to provide suitable services in various municipality work to the citizen and resident through inspection operations on restaurants, cafes and food shops, raise efficiency of central slaughterhouse and central citrus market and prepare gardens and public parks and extend their opening periods.
The Municipality used all its capabilities to face circumstances arising from works increase within this period according to easy and quick procedures so that the consumer and resident will enjoy clean environment and control on products and food to be safety and healthy for consumption.
Efforts of Central Slaughterhouse
In order to cope increase in this period, the central slaughterhouse contracted with 15 butchers to work for three months to provide more support to slaughterhouse which has completed its preparations where the sites were prepared, the slaughtering halls were equipped and the electric and mechanical devices were prepared in slaughterhouse. All used devices were maintained and the automated device was operated to skin cattle skins. The corridors of livestock barns were paved to facilitate transportation of customers and consumers upon livestock selection as well as place cleanliness and prevent dust blowing.
Central Slaughterhouse Efforts
Recently, the Municipality has offered a tender to establish a waiting hall for customers of central slaughterhouse. The hall should be of high standards and wide area and it should be prepared with chairs and suitable cooling and provided with advanced technologies and it will facilitate the receipt of the slaughtered animals according to the order.
In the same time, the veterinarians make great efforts in veterinary examination on livestock of different kinds imported to slaughterhouse. The animals are examined before and after the slaughtering process in order to make sure that they are free from any diseases and ensure provision of fitness meats for human consumption. The veterinary crew will provide all services to customers of slaughterhouse as well as companies and institutions of meats production.
Working Hours of Slaughterhouse
The working hours of Ramadan Month were determined to be three shifts where the first shift will be from 8:30 A.M to one 1:15 P.M and it will be for individuals, the second shift will be from 2:00 P.M to 5:30 P.M and the third shift will be from 10:00 P.M to 12:00 A.M and it will be for companies and individuals as well. The charges of slaughtering were determined to be one riyal for sheep, two riyals for cows and four riyals for camels.
Additional cadres
The Administration of the slaughterhouse cooperated with livestock selling companies to bring more livestock to ensure provision of required quantities without any shortage. The Muscat Municipality maintained all barns and provided the necessary supplies and instructed companies workers not to use force in dealing with sheep upon their transportation.
The slaughterhouse Administration carried out all necessary supplies for parking area of auditors and prepared waiting halls. The Administration of slaughterhouse used additional crew of workers and technicians from various directorates of Muscat Municipality to achieve acceleration and quality in executing work and to dispose of wastes of livestock and Moreover, Municipality prepared a team to dispose wastes of livestock in a safe and healthy way where a group of trucks allocated for that purpose will transfer these wastes to the allocated landfills.
Health Inspection
The health control agencies competent in field of health and food safety in Muscat Municipality intensified the visitations on food establishments during these days especially on meat selling shops, sweets and nuts shops, foodstuff shops, refrigerators and food stores to make sure of validity of food to ensure submission of food product in a healthy way and free from any pollutant to the consumer.
With regard to fresh meats, the Municipality urges the necessity of existence of Municipality seal, the matter that assures their slaughtering in the central slaughterhouse under the supervision of competent doctors as well as it protects consumer from commercial fraud. As for the imported frozen meats, the Municipality recommends the citizens to make sure of origin country of these meats through the statement card of each slaughtered animal or part of it which includes production country and validity date provided that they shall be kept in refrigerators not exceeding 4Co. The frozen meats should be kept in refrigerators not exceeding 18 Co below zero. The shop must have electric saw for cutting
Meats Instructions
For more safety according to scientific standards, Muscat Municipality instructs to follow up correct bases of purchase and make sure that the food has data card and validity date. Upon purchasing foodstuffs which are liable to damage and quick contamination such as meats, chicken and fish, the following shall be considered:
The meat should be sticky texture and free from viscosity and unpleasant odors. The meat should be red and not brown or grey which means meat spoilage due to growth of some microorganisms. the cutting and chopping of meat should be in the presence of customer.
If there is a huge quantity of blood in the container, this means that the meat is frozen and it was melted.
Avoid meat of the slaughtered animals that are outside the refrigerators where it is liable to contamination as a result of flies, dust and others and you should make sure that the fresh meat is kept at refrigerator at temperature of (1-4) co .
The meat should be purchased at the end of shopping and it should be kept at refrigerator at the shortest time.
In order to promote the control role, the working hours were distributed during the holy month to three morning shifts from 9 A.M -1:30P.M, afternoon shift from 12 P.M -5:30 P.M and the night shift from 5:30 P.M- 12 P,M.
Muscat Municipality cares to have a work team around the clock who receive calls, inquiries and reports concerning food and all matters related to Municipality agency through calling the communication center via telephone No.(1111).
Citrus Market and Products Control
The Administration of Citrus Market stared coordination meetings with importation companies working in market to ensure flow of all kinds of vegetables and fruits and suitable quantities during this month to cope purchase movement that is expected to increase on all kinds.
It started to prepare for this season through increase of number of shipments imported to market to meet needs of local consumer where the number of shipments imported to market during 01/06/2013 to 23/06/2013 reached (783) shipments loaded with (10660) tons of vegetables and fruits.
A coordination meeting was held with government authorities represented in Customs Department and Agricultural Quarantine Office in market and in presence of representatives of clearance companies to discuss some matters relating to the clearance process and inspection of refrigerators imported to market. Some recommendations are issued to help in facilitating inspection of refrigerators, ensuring their arrival to the consumer in the shortest time and ensuring the increase of offer in the holy month to reduce increase of prices. The traders were urged to not to raise prices in this holy occasion.
The Administration coordinated with Royal Oman Police represented in Al Khawd Police Station concerning intensification of police patrols to reduce Traffic jams and facilitate ingress and egress of central citrus market.
Working Hours in Market
The working hours in markets were determined to comply with holy month where the working hours of main umbrella was determined to be from 5:00 A.M to 2:00 P.M.As for the wholesale shops, the working hours will be from 6:00 A.M to 5:00 P.M along with continuation of work in retail shops on two shifts (morning and night) to 11 P.M.