The food safety authority revealed that it carried out more than 103,000 inspection visits in the UAE in 2023.
The Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA) carried out 103,000 inspections across all food establishments in the country during 2023, resulting in 3,391 violations and 27,895 warnings.
More than half of the inspections carried out last year were in Abu Dhabi city, with 63,690 visits, while Al Ain city had around 30,000 and Al Dhafra region had almost 10,000. The data was released to coincide with World Food Safety Day, which is celebrated annually on June 7.
Inspection Process
The introduction of an intelligent inspection system that uses artificial intelligence and GPS technology to locate food premises has enabled more than 490,000 inspection visits since implementation, enabling routine on-site food inspections to be carried out.
The application allows users to schedule inspections, provide contact information for relevant stakeholders, access historical records of the facility, take photographs and attach documents, and share the final inspection report with customers via email or phone.
Participation in the Zadna Rating application, launched by ADAFSA to share the assessment results of food establishments with the public, spans more than 9,000 outlets in Abu Dhabi. The application allows consumers to view the results of sites based on their food safety levels. This has led to an increase in the compliance rate of food establishments of more than 73 percent, ADAFSA said.
ADAFSA has organised 85 training courses on food safety to enhance the capacity of employees and enable them to carry out food control and inspection tasks. Since the inception of the training programme to develop food handlers' skills and build their knowledge on food safety requirements, over 230,000 people in the sector have obtained certificates.
ADAFSA also represents the UAE at meetings of the Codex Alimentarius Coordinating Committee for the Near East. In the first quarter of 2024, the authority participated in 11 Codex meetings.
Honduras case study
Meanwhile, a case study was presented showing how Honduras collaborated with the FAO/WHO International Food Safety Authority Network (INFOSAN) and other agencies during the 2021 Salmonella outbreak in Garia melons.
The outbreak has infected 348 people, including 68 hospitalized, across 12 European countries and the UK, with four cases in the US and two in Canada.
Honduras referred to the then-draft Codex “Guidelines for the Management of Biological Foodborne Outbreaks” for guidance on managing the situation.
Salmonella typhimurium matching the outbreak strain was found on the surface of a washing tank at one of the facilities that packed Galia melons. A case study suggested that the likely cause was a single bird dropping into a melon washing tank in Choluteca, southern Honduras.
Maria Sevilla, agro-food safety technical manager for Honduras' National Plant, Animal Health and Food Safety Service (SENASA), said they had referred to Codex guidelines on the spread of the disease.
“We used specific parts of this document to guide our analysis and risk assessment. In line with the Codex document, we mapped the areas most likely to be affected, visited production sites and processing plants and took more than 60 samples from water, equipment, surfaces and soil,” she said.
Local authorities sent 10 technical and laboratory staff, microbiologists and epidemiologists to the site to take samples, which were then sent to the Honduran National Laboratory to test for the presence of Salmonella, one of which tested positive.
But Honduras lacked the laboratory capacity to determine the genotype of the positive samples. A U.S. university was prepared to sequence the samples to see if they matched strains causing the disease in Europe. Logistical problems meant it took 60 days for the positive results to come out and for Honduras to notify INFOSAN that it had found the source of infection.
Honduras is now able to conduct WGS using equipment from the Ministry of Health and is building a national network infrastructure thanks to a training program carried out with the support of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
Corrective measures had been implemented at the facility in question, and the melon season had ended at this point. SENASA oversaw the implementation of more than 30 corrective actions and measures to assure trading partners that melon exports were safe for the following season. In January 2022, in response to the outbreak, the European Commission tightened official controls on imports of Honduran Garia melons. These inspections were abolished in early 2023.
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