Sink or swim: Assessing the current status of food safety in the Middle East

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SINK OR SWIM: In what direction are the region’s food safety standards heading?

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Novotel and Ibis World Trade Centre’s Timothy Kairu.

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JohnsonDiversey’s Abdul Rashid.

Luxury hotels might be models of good food safety but what about other outlets? Safety professionals at the International Food Safety Conference (IFSC) met with Caterer Middle East to discuss the region’s successes and remaining challenges.

What is the current status of food safety in the Middle East?

Abdul Rashid: I think it varies across the region; they have just introduced legislation in Oman so it's at the early stage of implementing food safety standards, whereas in Dubai we've been looking at the issue for the past 20 years. I think there's good regulatory control on the ground there.

J Stan Bailey: Speaking to a lot of people here at the IFSC, I would agree that it is a mixed bag. In certain areas it seems that the region is more advanced than other places - for example in the hospitality arena, which is of course a key market for many countries here. Hotels can't afford for their guests to get sick, so they're doing a great job.

But there are places in this region where hotels will have their own food safety arrangements because they don't have confidence in the authorities' abilities.

Robert MacLean: Being in the private sector in Oman does make life a lot easier for us, because we can do what we want; if we were in the government sector it would probably have taken us about five years to get things going.

I think that when you have hotel chains coming into the region, they do have very good systems in place. So they come into a place where there are no government procedures, but they have their own standards because they cannot afford a bad reputation.

Timothy Kairu: But there is a real problem for hotels right now because the staff turnover is very high, so it becomes hard to have any consistency; someone might join the company and train up, but then they will leave after a year so you have to start all over again.

Another safety issue has come from the increasing number of properties here.

We use the HACCP system, which is mandatory for all four-and five-star hotels, and we have to have regular checks.

But with the number of hotels opening recently I think it's become a little overwhelming for the inspectors, because for the last few months I have not seen one of them come in. I actually had to call them in myself to do the audit.

Peter Christopher-Ohrt: I think the most impressive thing in this region is how effectively many places have introduced the system in such a short period of time, but there are still challenges.

Food safety is easy for new properties, where measures can be integrated into the initial building and operational plans.

But for older or independent outlets, it's a far bigger challenge. So they do need to be looked at and I think getting the message across there will be a challenge - particularly with language barriers, because of the variety of nationalities working in the region.

MacLean: There are so many nationalities that it is tough getting the training across in a way that's understandable. We've talked about expanding the languages available and creating more materials to get the message across.

But one interesting point regarding people arriving that we're looking at is getting these people training before they arrive in the country.

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