Eating joint closed over hygiene issues

A prominent Asian restaurant was closed down by authorities on Tuesday as it was found to be violating hygine norms.

The inspectors from the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority (ADFCA) found many health hazards, including overflowing and stinking drainage pipes in the kitchen of Al Ibrahimi Restaurant's Madinat Zayed branch, Gulf News reported on Wednesday.

The newspaper quoted a senior ADFCA official as saying that the hygiene conditions at the Madinat Zayed branch of Al Ibrahimi restaurant were so bad that the authority decided to immediately order its temporary closure in the interest of public health and safety.

He said that such serious violations posing health risks to customers demand immediate closure, without issuing any warnings. "On such situations, inspectors do not need to follow the routine procedure of issuing warnings to give them a chance to rectify mistakes," Mohammad Jalal Al Reyaysa, Director of Communication and Community Service at ADFCA, said.

"We were shocked to find that the restaurant, which we understand is a popular eatery, was functioning in violation of all norms of public hygiene," he said.

As much as 85 kg of food items were destroyed by the inspectors on the spot for they were found unfit for human consumption. The destroyed food included 66 kg and 19 kg of chicken and meat respectively kept for grills.

Violations recorded in the inspection report included Overflowing and stinking drainage pipes in the kitchen, presence of cockroaches, insects and bugs, signs of presence of rodents in the basement kitchen, large quantities of meat and chicken products emitting bad smell, de-freezing food items in unhealthy ways that cause contamination, utterly unhygienic environs and unclean equipment, insufficient lighting and ventilation in cooking areas, broken ceramic in cooking areas, mixing of eggs, vegetables and food packets in the refrigerator and storing vegetables under the sink.

However, the owner of the 25-year-old restaurant, Khan Zaman, called the action unwarranted and claimed his restaurant followed hygiene norms.

The owner also said that the outlet was reopened after rectifying all the problems pointed out by the authority.

"There were not so many violations as mentioned by ADFCA because there was a misunderstanding on the part of inspectors. What they said ‘the meat and chicken products emitting bad smell' is the normal smell of Indian and Pakistani spices," he was quoted as saying by Gulf News.

"The inspectors found some minute problems which we were not aware of," Mohammad Iqbal, manager of the restaurant, said.

He claimed that there was not even a single complaint against the restaurant during the past 25 years.

The official said, although the restaurant was reopened, the authority published its name as part of the policy of naming and shaming serious violators. "Even if the temporary closure is for a few hours, we will publish the name because we want to give a choice to customers [from where to eat]," Al Reyaysa explained.

The action was taken as part of ADFCA's routine inspection campaign under which 70 outlets were inspected. ADFCA has recorded four violations, issued 63 warnings and destroyed 219 kg of food.

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