Inspection of Makkah food outlets intensified

Local authorities in Makkah are intensifying health inspection campaigns on eateries to guard against epidemics as the number of visitors to the holy city steadily increases. The Makkah municipality and the Ministry of Commerce have been separately engaged in efforts to maintain food hygiene specifications in eateries and food outlets in the holy city.

“Inspection teams from the ministry of commerce and industry raided a popular restaurant in Makkah where they confiscated more than 250 bags of rice weighing 40 kg each because of the presence of insects and rats,” a ministry of commerce official said on Sunday.

Abdul Hamid Al-Ansari of the Commerce Ministry said that after discovering the unhygienic environment in the restaurant, they seized rice bags and other substandard food items and destroyed them.

He added that the ministry also closed down the restaurant and took necessary measures to prosecute the owner. 

In a related development, the Makkah municipality’s Public Health Department has intensified its surveillance on all food outlets in the holy city to ensure that vendors meet the health specifications for their eateries.

Osama Al-Zaituny of the Makkah municipality told Arab News that, “We have recently closed down 82 restaurants and eateries in Makkah that failed to meet the municipality’s health standards.” He said that the municipality has destroyed more than 4,306 kilos of food and 1,215 liters of juice and liquids in addition to 8,000 food items of various kinds. He added that the municipality had also destroyed over 7 quintals of fresh fish in Makkah’s central fish market located at Kakiah.