The Al Rayyan Municipality has registered 717 health safety violations during the first 10 days of Ramadan. Its officials said they had carried out 286 inspections, covering all the food establishments in the municipality area.
Local Arabic daily Arrayah quoted a municipality official as saying that the violations varied from employing workers whose health certificates had expired to lack of personal hygiene, dirty utensils, unclean buildings and failure to satisfy health requirements relating to storage, processing and presentation of food in addition to selling of expired items.
The official said that a number of Garangao gift bags were among those seized during inspections. Twenty samples were referred to the central laboratory for tests.
He said that four restaurants were ordered to be closed for a month. Eleven violations were registered for selling expired items under Law number 8 of 1990. The eateries had temporary licences to provide kebab, samosa and other items during
Ramadan .
The official said the inspection teams had seized the carcasses of four sheep from a butchery as they were found to be infected with diseases. The inspectors also destroyed 1,500 kilos of processed meat, including liver, beef, kidney, heart and minced meat, which were found unfit for human consumption.
He added that the municipal officials inspected restaurants that provide Iftar meals to charity organisations.