Food Handling and Processing
General requirements for processing food:
- Food establishments must take all practicable measures to process only safe and suitable food.
- Food establishments when processing food should;
- take all necessary steps to prevent food being contaminated; and
- use a process step that is reasonably known to achieve the microbiological safety of food.
- Food establishments shall process & display high-risk foods under required time & temperature control to minimize the growth of pathogenic bacteria in the food.
Food Source:
A food establishment shall take all practicable measures to ensure that it accepts only safe food. The PIC should provide specific information to suppliers for each ingredient, where necessary, to ensure the delivery of a safe & a good quality product.
Approved Sources:
Food establishments shall obtain food and food ingredients from sources that are approved by Food safety Department. Approved food sources are establishments that are licensed to operate in the United Arab Emirates and are inspected by the local regulatory authority. Food establishments shall have appropriate system in place to ensure that safe food & food ingredients are received if sources are located outside United Arab Emirates.
- Food establishments should maintain sufficient information related to food; the name, business address of the supplier, vendor, manufacturer or packer or the importer.
- Food establishments that serve raw or lightly cooked (such as raw oysters, sushi, kebeneyah, steak tartar, carpaccio), should obtain detailed information from the supplier about the source and microbial safety of the products. Relevant records should be maintained as an evidence.
- Food establishment shall ensure that all their suppliers are registered on the Foodwatch platform and the relevant business activities have been declared and approved by the system.
Unapproved Sources:
Food prepared in a private home, unlicensed establishments, mobile vendors, open trucks or any other place, which is not approved by the Food Safety Department, shall not be commercially offered for human consumption.
Food Receiving:
Foods that are imported to the different Emirates are inspected by the respective local authorities at the port and then released to the market. Instructions provided at the time of the release should be followed by the importing establishment and the release documents should be verified by the retail establishments. Food establishments should always verify that their supplies are delivered safely. The receiving of food items shall be performed in protected and clean area.
Inspection of Incoming Food:
- Inspection should be carried out at the time of receipt of food from the supplier to ensure that:
- Food and packaging are free from visible damage, pests and other contaminants;
- food is in appropriate condition for intended use;
- food is received with appropriate documents;
- food is transported in a suitable vehicle approved by concerned authority and is verifiable on he Foodwatch platform.
- Foods that require temperature control for safety are to be delivered at temperatures stipulated in clause 3.4 of this Code.
- Food containers and packages should be intact and free from damage.
- Food items should be properly labelled with ingredient listing & date coding etc.
- If the food is pre-packaged, the time gap between the date of receiving and expiration date should be sufficient to use the product and avoid wastage of stock.
- Unacceptable food should be returned, and the details should be recorded via Foodwatch.
- Food products should be quickly moved into storage after the inspection.
Product Identification:
- All food products received at a food premise should be properly packaged and labelled, according to requirements outlined by the Food Safety Department or any other relevant standard such as the Gulf Standards.
- Invoices, receipts, and lot coding information should be retained, to allow tracking of unlabelled products (such as raw fish, oyster, carcasses, produce or bakery products) or split lots.
- In retail food service establishments such as restaurants and catering establishments, if the original packaging of the food is removed after receiving, the same production and expiration dates on the original label should be marked on the new label. The establishment should have a documented internal policy for date marking of products that are stored after the removal of the original packing. However, the foods that are consumed or heat processed on the same day are exempted from this requirement.
Ingredient inspection and control:
- All ingredients used in food preparation should be inspected prior to their use.
- Any ingredients that are off-colour, have strange odours, show evidence of pest contamination or suspected to be contaminated in any other manner should be discarded.
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