Increased risk of food poisoning, warns Dubai Municipality

Food control department at Dubai Municipality has noticed an increase in wrong practices in handling temperature of high risk ready-to-eat foods, which could lead to food poisoning.

Sultan Al Tahir, head of food inspection section, stated that the food establishments have the primary responsibility to protect consumer health and they  have to adhere to the best food safety practices while storing cooked foods. The  warning particularly targets the food sector that includes hotels  restaurants, cafeteria,  catering facilities, bakeries and supermarkets that serve a lot of high risk foods directly to the consumers.

He said that the hot foods served in the restaurant buffet counters, shopping malls and supermarkets should be held at 60C after production until it is served to the consumer. It is important to keep the food piping hot to ensure that bacteria does not grow in the food after cooking.

He also emphasized the particular concern with cold foods, especially the ones that contain egg products, milk etc. Cold desserts are high risk foods and such foods should be cooled rapidly after cooking and stored at 5C or below until it reaches the consumers.

Some restaurants take this requirement lightly and leave cold foods at ambient temperature on the buffet.

Whether you are serving food in the restaurant, a cruise boat or in the middle of the desert, it is important to keep the food at the recommended temperature to prevent food poisoning.

Asia Al Raeesi, head of food studies and planning section said that the food-borne disease surveillance system has helped DM identify  some incidents associated with the consumption of egg products.

"We noticed that some of the food poisoning patients  had eaten food products prepared with eggs. Bacteria called Salmonella enteritidis are found in egg in low numbers, and they can multiply quickly in the food and cause illness. If raw eggs are stored in the chiller, the bacteria cannot multiply. But, if eggs are left at warm ambient temperature the bacteria can multiply easily and reach levels that cannot be destroyed by normal cooking process," Raeesi said.

She also highlighted the fact that many egg products are not fully cooked because of personal preferences and this increases the risk of infection.

Tahir emphasised that eggs should be stored in refrigerators all along the food chain from the farm until they are cooked. In the kitchen, eggs should be broken carefully in a segregated area to prevent contamination of other ready to eat food.

Egg products should be cooked well to a minimum temperature of 75C as per DM regulations. Eggs that are stored at ambient temperature should not be consumed and our inspectors have been instructed to discard eggs that are temperature abused.

"The rule is the same for all high risk cooked foods that can support the growth of bacteria. Ready to eat foods such as rice, biryani, meat, sandwiches, pasteurized milk etc are considered as high risk foods. Hot high risk food such as cooked rice and meat should be stored about 60C and cold high risk foods such as sandwiches, milk etc should be stored below 5C at all times, he added.

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