Shorouk Awad (Dubai)
Abdullah Al-Janaan, Director of the Food Safety Department at the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, confirmed that the ministry, through its membership in international organizations, the international network of bodies concerned with food safety, the European Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed, and the Gulf Rapid Alert System for Food, is following up on food notifications, which pose a threat to health. The consumer periodically, in order to ensure the speedy and governance of following up on contaminated food notifications and ensuring that they are withdrawn and not circulated in the local markets.
Al-Janaan said in statements to Al-Ittihad: The Ministry, in coordination with the relevant supervisory authorities in the country, is carrying out an integrated system of procedures, programs and activities that ensure the achievement of the highest standards of imported food safety, represented in risk analysis of food according to countries and varieties, in addition to monitoring and early detection. About food contaminants, control and inspection through all ports at the state level.
Al-Janaan’s assurances came in his comment on the precautionary steps taken by the Ministry regarding the issue of the spread of “cholera”, which is now appearing widely in Arab countries, such as Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, where the World Health Organization announced an outbreak of the disease in 26 countries during the current year 2022. .
Examination of food consignments
And when asked whether the ministry was in the process of taking special decisions to ban the reception of food consignments from the above-mentioned countries or to prevent the entry of food with travelers, similar to the decision taken by the State of Kuwait during last November, to prevent the entry of food with travelers from 3 Arab countries, namely Iraq and Syria And Lebanon, he said: “The ministry is applying international standards with regard to importing and banning food products such as vegetables, fruits, and others,” stressing that the ministry, in cooperation with the relevant regulatory authorities in the country, takes all preventive measures to examine food consignments, to ensure their safety and that they are free from food contaminants, as well as It works to import food products in accordance with health conditions and international technical specifications.
UAE food security
And he indicated that the preventive measures come within the strategy of the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, to ensure the security and safety of food traded or imported into the UAE, and its keenness to provide safe and secure food to consumers in line with international best practices, with the aim of enhancing consumer confidence in the country in the safety of food traded to achieve its goals of Promoting food safety and the sustainability of local production, and in line with the national agenda of the UAE vision in implementing a health system based on the highest international standards, as food safety in the UAE depends on effective control systems for imported and traded food to protect consumers from food that is harmful to health, adulterated, misleading or violating. technical regulations in cooperation and coordination with the local authorities and the concerned authorities in the country.
Food Monitoring Mechanism
He explained that the mechanism for monitoring contaminated food is carried out through the ministry’s management of the rapid food alert system, in cooperation and coordination with the local authorities concerned with food control, such as the Abu Dhabi Authority for Agriculture and Food Safety, and the municipalities of Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah, and in the event that any imported products were detected. contaminated, the Ministry immediately prepares a list of the affected products with specific dates of production and issues a special circular to the authorities, with the aim of ensuring that the country’s markets are free of them, and works immediately to withdraw and recover these products under the supervision of the competent local authorities in each emirate, and destroy them if necessary or return them to the country of origin.
food system
Regarding more details of the integrated system applied by the Ministry to ensure the safety of food, whether produced locally or imported to us from various global markets, he stressed that the system includes a set of axes, including at the level of local food production, and includes the development of mechanisms for the work of the electronic system for food registration and approval (ZAD), And transforming it, in coordination with the strategic partners from the concerned authorities, into an integrated electronic platform, and increasing control mechanisms and campaigns on local farms to determine the types of pesticides used, and to ensure that they are of the types approved and authorized for use by the relevant and licensed authorities, while the axes of the system include food and food products. The State received notifications related to food safety through its membership in the global and Gulf notification systems, and the development of the work mechanisms of the examination laboratories and veterinary quarantine centers affiliated with the Ministry at all the country’s border crossings, and raising their efficiency and quality, by employing the latest available global technologies, and raising the level of technical personnel working in them and others.
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