MME comes down heavily on errant food establishments

One of the best things about living in Qatar is the no-nonsense policy it adopts when it comes to punishing errant establishments, especially when it comes to food safety.

Qatar Tribune reports that in March, the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) shut down a record 29 restaurants and food outlets as part of intensifying its campaign against errant food establishments.

The ministry had ordered 17 restaurants shut in January and 12 in February this year. The food outlets were issued administrative closure notices for a period ranging from one week to 60 days.

Violations included preparing and storing food items in unhygienic conditions, manipulating expiry dates of food packages and selling expired products deemed unfit for human consumption.

The errant establishments were located in Doha, Al Khor and Umm Salal municipalities.

A list of the penalised or closed food establishments has been uploaded on the ministry's website. The MME has also destroyed several tonnes of rotten meat, fish, vegetables and fruits.

Doha Municipality’s inspectors have carried out over 500 checks on food establishments. While 477 were periodic inspections, 33 were at targeted food establishments.

The inspectors detected 60 violations during the inspections and 27 of them were given warnings.

Meanwhile, veterinarians of Doha Municipality have carried out tests on about 14,538 slaughtered animals, including 14,292 sheep, 125 cows and 120 camels.

After tests, the inspectors destroyed three tonnes of meat deemed unfit for human consumption.