Bad practices in Restaurants in the UAE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Bad practices in Restaurants in the UAE - Essay Example As these restaurants prepare various kinds of cuisines, it becomes difficult for them to abide by all the norms of hygiene. Almost most of them nowadays, do not comply with the norms devised by the food control authority of the country. The paper will argue how the restaurants and food control authority ignore hygienic practices in restaurants of UAE. It gives an account of the causes leading to these bad practices, the final outcome of neglect and the solutions some of which are reflected in terms of the steps taken by the authority. The study would argue on the basis of secondary research as well as results from primary survey to capture the choice pattern of public. A brief interview and survey was conducted on a randomly drawn sample of 50 people online and at the American University of Sharjah to understand on what basis the customers choose restaurants to go and eat. Causes: The restaurants in UAE are facing severe hygiene troubles as all the restaurants do not employ qualified or trained employees. To maintain low costs, the employers generally employ untrained and unprofessional people in their restaurants. â€Å"One in every three people responsible for hygiene in Dubai’s restaurants is not qualified† (Malek, May23, 2012). ... (Malek, Oct 19, 2011). It is understood that Indians make up 65 per cent of the food industry workforce, Asian comprise 20 per cent of workers, with Arabs making up 12 per cent. The results point out that the majority of workers are not receiving efficient hygiene training (Shaheen and Dajani, Mar 1, 2010). The lack of a culture of hygiene and food safety in restaurants and food outlets is a key reason for illness.   For example, the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority instructed the closing of Al Tazaj Fakieh Grilled Chicken, a restaurant in the Hamdan Centre building along Hamdan Bin Mohammad Street, for recurrent breach of food safety policy.(Kader, April 18, 2011). Sometimes the food is also not prepared in proper clean environment and furnished place. It therefore leaves a risk behind in the whole making of the food (Occupational Food Handling and Food Preparation Areas, February, 2012, p.9). Out of the 130 restaurants inspected, 8 were accused of unhygienic practices while 95 ha ve been alerted – â€Å"Offences included poor ventilation, unclean cooking areas and piling food in refrigerators in a way that could lead to cross contamination† (The National Staff, 2012). The Ibrahim restaurant was ordered to shut down after the food authority in Abu Dhabi found â€Å"cockroaches and other insects in the restaurant’s kitchen and dining area† (Abu Dhabi food inspectors cracking down on restaurants, 2012) . Some related issues can also be identified. For instance, problems like temperature control, contamination and food poisoning are witnessed due to unhygienic methods employed in the cooking process. Controlling temperatures of food in high-risk outlets such as hotels, cafeterias, restaurants and catering companies