The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs is keen on ensuring all safety measures in local restaurants and big supermarkets. The ministry plans stricter measures to ensure cleanliness in these places. “Jeddah municipality is taking care of the most important factors such as utensils, food centigrade, stores as well as the workers appearance,” according to the municipality's General Secretary Said Dia'a Shuja'a. He said inspections would be conducted to check whether utensils used in the restaurants are hygienic and clean. In addition, there should be suitable number of fridges and ovens that must be working by electricity or gas rather than diesel, he said. Finally each restaurant should have a chimney two-meter higher than the other buildings so as to avoid the air pollution, he said. “The requirements would differ from one region to another, for example Makkah and Madina have different needs especially in the holy month of Ramadan, and during Haj,” he said. “Many procedures should be followed for specific meals such as salad and tomato sauce,” he added. Restaurants will be subjected to stiff penalty if they fail to meet health requirements, he said. “Every worker should have a medical certificate to confirm that he does not have any contagious disease,” he added. Every restaurant should have a separate store to save cleaning materials, insecticides, and firewood. The municipality imposes restaurants violating the health norms a fine starting from SR500. The restaurants are closed two days after a warning has been issued. Jeddah municipality is set to launch periodical visits to various restaurants to check for any violation of the health laws, added the municipality official. __
