The Ministry of Public Health celebrates the Second World Food Safety Day, which falls today (June 7) under the slogan “Food safety is an issue of concern to all”.

The ministry is organizing many important activities and events, including online workshops on food safety in all stages of the food chain, and foodstuff registration.

Activities also feature intensifying awareness of consumers about all areas related to food safety, including shopping, food preparation, storage and general hygiene, through social media. Wassan Abdulla al-Baker, Director of Food Safety and Environmental Health, said that the food control system at the ministry witnessed a great development during the last period by establishing a wide and effective communication system with food companies and facilities.

She added that the development also included developing online systems and applications such as registration systems, exchanging certificates electronically and online payment, and developing a page of the department on the health ministry’s website, highlighting dozens of guides, circulars, instructions, official forms and various declarations on food safety requirements.

The ministry is organizing an online workshop on the electronic system for registering foodstuffs and a course in ensuring food safety, as this system was introduced about a year and a half ago as 700 companies operating in Qatar used it to register more than 45,000 food products.

The importance of registration as one of the most important modern strategic principles to ensure food safety, registration procedures, requirements and their importance in building a modern electronic system to control local and imported food will also be discussed during the workshop.

Also, next week, the Ministry of Public Health will organise nine e-educational workshops for the officials in consumer societies due to their primary role in ensuring food safety while preparing it until it reaches the consumer, and precautionary measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus through food and food handlers.

The workshops feature a detailed explanation of the food safety guideline in food establishments prepared by the Food Safety and Environmental Health Department, and it includes publicity requirements for food hygiene, storage, preservation and preparation of food, and the most important microbial and chemical risks associated with food.

Qatar will participate in a symposium tomorrow, “Arab seminar” through a video conference, where the Ministry of Public Health will give a presentation on the Arab food safety policy, which Qatar has been assigned to prepare its initial draft by the Arab Food Safety Team of the Secretariat General of the League of Arab States, where the specialists in Qatar prepared this draft based on the latest references and international best practices in this regard.

The World Food Safety Day celebration this year revolves around people who contributed to the uninterrupted supply of food chains amid the corona pandemic, ensuring that safe food remains available to all.

Source : Gulf Times

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