Around 400,000 kilograms of dates unfit for human consumption were confiscated during a raid on a factory by Riyadh Municipal health officials recently. Solaiman H. Al-Buthi, director of Environmental Health Department for the Riyadh Municipality, said since the beginning of Ramadan teams of environmental health inspectors have been making rounds of the city inspecting restaurants, food outlets and hotels. “The teams have thwarted the re-packaging of expired chilled fresh chicken into packets to be sold under frozen chicken labels. Apart from this, a huge quantity of expired food items from various food outlets has been seized,” said Al-Buthi. He said consumers should verify the expiry date before buying frozen chicken. Freshly slaughtered chicken when chilled is suitable for consumption for only five days from the date of packaging, he said. However, some vendors, repack unsold chicken and sell it under the frozen chicken label, he warned. He said around 80 workers, who were working without proper health certificates at a food factory, were also arrested during Ramadan by a team comprising of officials from Riyadh police and municipality. He said workers without health certificates were employed for the manufacture of confectionary items with expired ingredients including dates, chocolate and biscuits at a food factory. He said due to careful municipal inspection, there has been a decline in the number of food poisoning cases this Ramadan. However, 15 people were treated for food poisoning after they ate at three different restaurants in the city. Food outlets that have violated the food safety and hygiene rules will be fined in the range of SR1,000 to SR10,000 per person reported to have suffered from food poisoning after eating at those restaurants, he said. He said the Riyadh Municipality has so far closed down 350 restaurants for violation of food safety rules and around 2,800 others were penalized but allowed to continue their operations. The Riyadh Municipality has urged the public to report any violation of food safety by calling emergency number 940 or at www.seha.alriyadh.gov.sa. __
