Food Safety is one of the most challenging aspects of Food. Even the most common and simple food can create problems for consumers. Your food is handled by many hands, machines, and equipment before landing on your plate. It also travels through various storage locations and touches surfaces that you won't even imagine. Each of these touchpoints can add germs, bacteria, and chemicals that may prove fatal to you. The Food Safety management system is to secure the food that comes on your plate. Food Safety needs to be managed in a systematic manner and not in a reactive manner. This is also to ensure that the food chain remains strong and its weakest link can be strengthened. It is not about mere certification.
Food Safety in the UAE is very sensitive. This is because the UAE imports huge quantities of food everywhere. The imported food comes to the consumers' plates through a lot of processes. In order to make the final food safe, the local governments and the federal government have issued a number of directives and regulations. These are implemented through regular lab testing, inspection visits, and communications. The moot point however is, are these regulations enough for Food Safety? The answer to this is a firm NO. The food industry is huge in the UAE. It covers various verticals like Food importers, Warehousing, Logistics, Processors, Kitchens, and packagers, while making food safe 100%, it can be definitely very close to that! For this, every organization in the food chain MUST establish a system and implement the food system management system.
The food safety management system MUST start with proper Hazard Assessment and identifying the critical control points. Proper planning to mitigate and minimize the operational activities as well as provide proper training to all the handlers. But the most important thing in every food processing is to understand the local requirements and guidelines. These guidelines are highly important and are made as per the conditions of the UAE. Many basic food companies like Cafeterias in UAE do need to check these requirements and enhance their awareness lest they get heavy fines.
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