Inspectors survey restaurant hygiene ahead of Ramadan

Ajman officials kick off a campaign aimed at making sure food remains safe during the summer.

AJMAN // Cooking oil used in cafeterias and restaurants will be the main target of the Ajman summer food-safety drive.

The campaign is more important this year because it will cover the Holy Month of Ramadan, according to Khalid al Hosni, the director general of Public Health at Ajman Municipality and Planning Directorate.

"We are carrying out a series of inspections in all restaurants and cafeterias in the morning and evening shifts," he said.

"We want to be sure that the cooking oil and hygiene of all these restaurants is acceptable by the start of the Holy Month."

Municipal officials have new devices to test the purity of cooking oil and will evaluate it to ensure it has been used only once.

"Once used, cooking oil should not be used again, especially if its colour changes," he said.

He said that inspection teams would scrutinise restaurants on hygiene, grading them on a scale of one to 100. Outlets attaining less than 69 per cent will be asked to improve their hygiene or could be fined.

A similar campaign is already under way in Sharjah, although the main concern there is retailers who turn off their refrigerators at night to save on power.