Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes

Food safety challenges and initiatives in the Dubai hospitality industry

Khalid Mohammed Sharif Al-Awadhi Ahmed AbdulRahman Al Ali O. Peter Snyder AbdulAziz AlSheikh
Bobby Krishna Joanne Taylor
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Bobby Krishna Joanne Taylor, (2011),"Food safety challenges and initiatives in the Dubai hospitality
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Food safety
Food safety challenges challenges
and initiatives in the Dubai in Dubai
hospitality industry
443
Khalid Mohammed Sharif Al-Awadhi
Food Control Department, Dubai Municipality, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Ahmed AbdulRahman Al Ali
Food Inspection Section, Dubai Municipality, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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O. Peter Snyder
Hospitality Institute of Technology and Management, St Paul, Minnesota, USA
AbdulAziz AlSheikh and Bobby Krishna
Dubai Municipality, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and
Joanne Taylor
University of Salford, Salford, UK

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the latest food safety initiatives for hospitality
businesses in the Emirate of Dubai, UAE. It is the sixth paper in a themed issue of Worldwide Hospitality
and Tourism Themes presenting international food safety management challenges and solutions.
Design/methodology/approach – The Dubai Municipality Food Control Department food safety
initiatives are presented, with a wider discussion of their impact.
Findings – Research shows that many hospitality businesses are not adequately managing food safety
despite basic training of employees, which has prompted a move towards management level training. Case
study research also demonstrates that innovative “evolving methods” of HACCP can assist in improving
food safety management in local hospitality businesses. The Dubai Municipality Food Control Department
is, therefore, working on two important strategies: first, the mandatory training of “Persons in Charge” in all
food businesses, and subsequently the wider implementation of food safety management systems.
Practical implications – The paper will be of value to practitioners, researchers, policy makers and
other stakeholders involved in the food industry.
Originality/value – This paper presents an insight into senior government strategy and motivations
in Dubai.
Keywords United Arab Emirates, Food safety, Food controls, Hospitality, Training, Management,
Dubai Municipality, PIC, HACCP, Menu-Safe
Paper type Technical paper

Introduction: the Dubai food safety challenge

The Food Control Department of Dubai Municipality has the responsibility to ensure food
safety in the Emirate of Dubai. For a city that imports 95 per cent of its food, where the Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism
average daytime temperature is above 358C for more than six months in a year, with Themes
Vol. 3 No. 5, 2011
people from 200 different countries and an equal variety of people employed in the food pp. 443-449
industry – maintaining food safety is an environmental, technological, social and cultural q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1755-4217
challenge. Food control in Dubai involves inspection of food at ports, storehouses, DOI 10.1108/17554211111185818
 WHATT manufacturers and retail food establishments. The inspection programs are supported by
3,5 food sampling and testing, consumer awareness programs and disease surveillance.
Until recently, food inspections were limited to verification of compliance with food
safety regulations, but the Food Control Department has changed its philosophy in
recent years by fostering partnerships between the Department and the food industry.
This approach requires more involvement from the inspectors in the improvement of
444 existing food safety management systems in the establishments.
Traditional food inspection was centered on determining compliance by food
processing establishments with a number of regulations that may or may not have an
impact on the reduction of foodborne diseases. The food industry reacted to the situation
by doing what was “absolutely” required by the inspectors rather than looking at what
controls they require and reducing critical risk factors.
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This is clear from a study that was carried out in a random selection of 50 small food
service establishments in Dubai. The results showed that:
.
More than 90 per cent of the establishments had at least one critical violation
such as failure to hold high risk foods at appropriate temperatures, improper
cooling of hot foods, absence of illness monitoring systems and absence of
records related to food sources.
.
More than 80 per cent of the food handlers were trained in basic food safety,
but there were no significant changes in their food safety practices.
.
Only 8 per cent of the food establishments had a trained manager.
.
Critical violations were less likely to be seen in establishments where the
manager was trained.
.
Corrective and preventive actions were taken more effectively when critical
violations were pointed out to the manager. This was evident in the follow-up
inspections done on the same premises.

Training programs in the past were focused on food handlers who often found it
difficult to put into practice what they had learned in the training because of the lack of
facilities or encouragement from the management. Training of food handlers has
been mandatory since 2005 and several thousands have been trained so far. However,
the expected outcomes could not be achieved in food safety because most of these food
handlers worked under managers who did not have the necessary skills and
knowledge to facilitate food safety related activities.

New initiatives for the management of food safety

An Administrative Order for the Emirate of Dubai was developed in 2010 from the
Dubai Municipality Food Control Department (DM FCD, 2011a), as well as a guidance
document for industry (DM FCD, 2011b). These set forward new requirements for all
food businesses in Dubai, including that:
.
All food businesses in Dubai must have a person in charge (PIC) trained and
certified in food safety.
.
All food businesses must ensure the effective implementation of good hygiene
practice (GHP) and those in retail, food service and manufacturing must also
implement a food safety management system based on Codex HACCP principles.
 The PIC can be the owner of the business or a designated person, such as a shift leader, Food safety
chef, kitchen manager or similar individual who is always present and involved in the challenges
work site and has direct authority, control or supervision over employees who engage
in the storage, preparation, display, or service of foods. in Dubai
The PIC is required to actively manage food safety practices in an establishment
and will be accountable to their employer and the government for making sure that
they and the employees on their shift are following established policies and procedures 445
for food safety. The manager will be responsible for monitoring safe food-handling
practices that contribute to foodborne illness and verify that procedures are controlling
the risk factors (Al Raeesi, 2011).
The role of a PIC is a proactive, rather than reactive, approach where the manager
has to develop and implement a food safety program that will keep the food safe. To do
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so, the manager will be trained on food regulations first. The training will help them
to identify food safety procedures and practices that will keep food safe and sanitary.
The training will also assist them in developing an “eye” to monitor all procedures to
be sure food handlers are properly following them. This will help in ensuring that the
food control system works all the time so that safe products are consistently produced.
Following PIC training, managers will be required to develop a food safety
management system that is HACCP-based. Importantly, the requirement for a
HACCP-based system allows a certain degree of flexibility in the approach taken by
small and less developed businesses (SLDBs). Similar terminology is used within the
European Union legislation, and it is recognized globally that SLDBs require flexibility
and innovation in the implementation of a HACCP system, but the HACCP principles
themselves should not be omitted (FAO/WHO, 2006).

Wider implications of the PIC program

In the past, assuring an appropriate level of protection from foodborne illness when a
Dubai consumer dines out or purchases food at a food market for preparation at home
has had similar risks as in anywhere in the world. The raw food from farms and
suppliers worldwide is randomly contaminated with low levels of biological,
chemical and physical hazards and is a risk to the consumer’s health. The biological
hazards come largely from the fecal contamination of the farm animals, manure, pests
and farm workers. Chemical hazards include drugs given to the animals or chemical
cross-contamination, and physical hazards can include rocks, metal and glass
contamination during slaughter and harvesting. The contamination level is very low,
but if there are not process prevention strategies in place that prevent, eliminate or
reduce the hazard to a tolerable level of risk, the consumer can be made ill or hurt. It is
up to the manager, cooks and food handlers in the retail food operation to follow a food
safety plan to control the hazards to meet a food safety objective, and to protect the
consumer from hazards in the food.
The Dubai Food Control Department in the past regulated the safety of food in retail
operations with periodic inspections to look for violations of the Dubai retail code.
However, according to this approach, an inspector is simply identifying the violation.
This type of inspection, designed to find violations, is essentially the regulatory food
safety system used traditionally throughout the world, and foodborne illness outbreaks
are testimony to the fact it is not a perfect process. The regulator who is in the facility
only a few hours a year is the “hazard controller” when, in reality, the manager and food
 WHATT employees are the only people who are present all of the time to assure that every portion
3,5 of food served/sold to the customer provides an appropriate level of protection.
The food processing industry and regulators have recognized the ineffectiveness of
this regulatory inspection process to control hazards and prevent foodborne illness
outbreaks. The WHO/FAO has taken the leadership and specified that using HACCP
to design safe processes should be the way to assure the safety of every portion of food
446 produced in a food facility, because it puts the responsibility for safe food on the
management of the firm, and the job of the regulator is to see that the operation follows
its HACCP-based control system.
The Dubai Food Control Department had recognized the value of HACCP
for scientific process controlled by management, and from 2005 required HACCP
programs for 4 and 5 star hotels. It would be devastating to the tourism business in
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Dubai to have an outbreak of illness in a premier hotel in Dubai. However, traditional

HACCP is very detailed and expensive for small operators to implement; so, HACCP
was not pursued for smaller food operators at that time.
What was needed to make HACCP work in small retail food operations was a simple
management system. In searching globally for an appropriate management system for
smaller food operations, the Food Control Department found in the USA, UK, and other
locales a management component that could be incorporated with HACCP that allowed
the HACCP-based food safety technology to be implemented in the retail food sector
with very little cost and time. The first step in this process was called the PIC program.
Each PIC is taught to use a control process called active managerial control (AMC).
AMC specified that the PIC had four responsibilities:
(1) identify the hazards in the operation and processes that are a significant risk
and could lead to customer illness;
(2) specify scientifically validated controls that reduce the risk of loss of control to
an acceptable level of protection;
(3) train employees to master the controls; and
(4) inspect the operation, supervise employees and take corrective action to
improve the employees’ mastery of the control of the hazards.

Benefits and challenges of the AMC-PIC approach

In 2010, Dubai Municipality began implementation of the PIC food safety program.
Training companies that wanted to train PICs have been identified and approved,
and materials and exams have been reviewed and validated by the Dubai Food Control
Department. A small number of locally based, approved and accredited awarding
bodies take responsibility for the provision of materials, the delivery of independent
exams and the certification of successful PIC candidates. It is a major benefit to have
required certification of the materials and companies, because it assures the uniformity
of PIC knowledge and hence, AMC training. Since the Dubai program is compatible
with AMC-PIC principles globally, the Dubai implementation can be benchmarked
against AMC-PIC programs internationally.
A major challenge is that it requires the manager/PIC to return to the unit and to
identify hazards and implement controls. The PIC has been taught in the class to do
this, but this is not an easy task. There is also the challenge that the inspector must
verify that the manager’s system is effective, which is different than in the past
 when the inspector was only looking for code violations. Also, the manager must train Food safety
the employees to master the hazard controls and the monitoring thereof, and this is a challenges
new responsibility for most PICs.
in Dubai
New approaches to HACCP
To help in solving the food safety challenges identified, and to bridge the gap between
PIC training and HACCP implementation, the additional requirement for businesses to 447
implement a HACCP-based system is very important.
As discussed, since 2005 Dubai Municipality has required large-scale catering
operations, and 4 and 5 star hotels, to have a HACCP system in place. They are aiming
for all food businesses to have a “HACCP-based” system in the future, and are taking a
staged approach. For the very small businesses, it is recognised that this will not be the
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same type of HACCP system as a larger business.

Dubai Municipality Food Control Department Director Khalid Mohammed Sharif
Al-Awadhi stated in 2009 that:
This year, we are starting to look at restaurants that have more than one branch; then next year
we go step-by-step for all food premises. So, this measure will be in place within five years.
He also made the important point that: “Some of the smallest premises can’t implement
HACCP exactly, because they’re too small – but they can at least have similar rules to
HACCP”.
For businesses that do not have a food safety management system in place,
and are likely to find this challenging to implement, Ahmed AbdulRahman Al Ali,
Dubai Municipality Head of Food Inspection, recommends an approach that starts with
a GHP system, as a starting point for a HACCP-based system. This concept is being
adopted voluntarily by some of the training companies and hospitality businesses
involved in the PIC program; for example, the GHP section and the Diary record
keeping tool from the Menu-Safe HACCP system is being provided to businesses
during some of the PIC courses (TSI Quality Services, 2011). Using GHP as a starting
point, based on the Menu-Safe HACCP system is also the approach being taken by
Sharjah Municipality (Al-Qassemi et al., 2011).
Menu-Safe HACCP uses the principles of the internationally recognised
“evolving methods” of HACCP (FAO/WHO, 2006), and it can also still be accredited
to international Codex GHP and HACCP standards. The methodology is based on
identifying a responsible person within the kitchen (e.g. head chef), and requiring them
to undertake training prior to implementing the GHP and HACCP system in practice;
they are then responsible for on-the-job training for the rest of the employees in their
kitchen. In this way, it compliments the PIC program in terms of both content and
approach, and it provides an effective progression for businesses that have started
with PIC. Furthermore, by using the concept of “building in expertise” (FAO/WHO,
2006), implementing the system also supports managers in the identification of specific
hazards and controls within their business, which as discussed can be very challenging
to do independently.
In 2009, AbdulAziz Basheer Al Shaikh, Food Safety Specialist at Dubai Municipality,
conducted case study research into the complexities of implementing a food
safety management system in a small hospitality business in Dubai. By undertaking
interviews and observations prior to their attempt to implement a food safety
 WHATT management system, he discovered that barriers existed at knowledge, attitude and
3,5 behavioural levels (Al Shaikh, 2010).
The second stage of the case study research involved revisiting the business after
their implementation of a food safety management system. In this case, the businesses
had selected to use the Menu-Safe HACCP system.
The second stage of the research showed that the “evolving method” of HACCP was
448 effective in reducing many of the barriers, and had enabled the business to implement a
HACCP system to international standards. In particular, improvements were noticed in
the cooling practices of the business, which had been validated and enhanced.
The conclusions of this case study support international evidence of the “barriers”
to food safety management in hospitality businesses (Taylor et al., 2011), as well as
showing that new “evolving methods” can provide practical and internationally valid
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solutions.

Conclusion
In summary, Dubai is now a member of a small but growing global group of regulatory
bodies that uses a PIC-driven AMC-HACCP program to apply science-based controls
that are implemented by operators with hazard self control through trained employees
to assure the safety of every portion of food served. Many motivated, highly qualified
people are part of the regulatory and food safety team. The payoff to Dubai to be
known globally for its safe food is great.
The latest food safety initiatives in Dubai aim to increase levels of management
commitment to food safety, raise levels of HACCP implementation across the industry,
and ultimately improve food safety standards. Dubai Municipality strives hard to stay
ahead and benchmark their standards against world’s best.

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 Taylor, J.Z., Akanji, T., Al Shaikh, A., Collison, F. and Whitehall, P. (2011), “Barriers to HACCP in Food safety
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Corresponding author 449

Joanne Taylor can be contacted at: j.z.taylor@salford.ac.uk
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