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http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/Health/10337162.html

Inspectors shut down meat stalls
By Binsal Abdul Kader and Ahmed A Namatalla, Staff Reporters
Published: August 03, 2009, 22:57


Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority (ADFCA) has shut down the meat sections of two major retail chains for selling expired meat products, a statement said on Monday.

Authorities also temporarily closed three food outlets for unhygienic practices. The establishments were identified as: Golden Sun on Mina Street, the Healthy Food restaurant in industrial city in Musaffah and Al Yazia Refreshments on Mina Street. Inspectors found flies and insects in the outlets' kitchens.

The meat stalls at Lulu Hypermarket in Al Wahda Mall and Carrefour in Marina Mall were also closed down for three days during the past two months for allegedly selling expired meat and other violations, according to the statement.


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The cases were referred to court where the penalties for the outlets will be decided, this may include fines, a senior official told Gulf News on Monday.

"The inspectors found these two meat stalls have been cheating customers by tampering with the expiry dates of the meat products," Mohammad Jalal Al Reyaysa, Manager of Information and Communication Department at ADFCA said.

ADFCA will take strict action against violators whether they are small or big players in the market, Al Reyaysa said.

"Food outlets do not have any other option but to be professional and law abiding," the official said.

The statement disclosed that of the 35 inspections carried out at the meat stall of Lulu Hypermarket in Al Wahda Mall since January 2009, inspectors found several violations on five visits. On the most recent visit on July 3, four violations were found, including the mixing of leftovers with fresh meat.

The inspectors confiscated and destroyed 20 kilogrammes of mixed meat and 40 kilogrammes of ground meat without production and expiry dates. The stall also violated the permitted allowance of one day on the expiry date for ground meat packets by selling them even two or three days after the expiry date, the statement added.

They were also found keeping spiced chicken in large containers which was not permitted. Some of the violations were repetitive which were already found on March 1, the statement said. On February 26, the expiry dates of meat products were found tampered with, which is commercial fraud, according to the statement. On January 5 and 16 two violations each including unhygienic practices was discovered.

The Emke Group which runs Lulu Hypermarkets said in a statement issued to Gulf News that there had been a total of 43 visits to its store by ADFCA officials to date this year and only on three occasions had they found a violation on its part. "We have taken serious note of these issues and have done a thorough investigation of the whole procedure to rectify any hitches."

At Carrefour in Marina Mall, inspectors found several varieties of expired meat were mixed with fresh meat and expiry dates were tampered with, the ADFCA statement said. Gulf News contacted Carrefour, but a spokesman said it would not make any comment.

I love the "Carrefour won't comment" bit...

All said, one great thing about Abu Dhabi is that health inspectors are very strict; standards are also high . While we point out the negatives, we should point out the positives as well

fair enough..
but what was shocking is tht big names like carrefore adapting such practices..

They might be a big name supermarket, but unfortunately that doesn't necessarily mean that the staff they employ locally are going to adhere to health and hygiene practices.

xdude wrote:fair enough..
but what was shocking is tht big names like carrefore adapting such practices..

when you have majority of ppl from pakistan and india living and working in dubai wot do you expect? that everything would be fine? plz

corruption and ppl taking short cuts in UAE is something which I dont find suprising. In fact it happens across the Middle East.

it was only time when these ppl get caught and punished.

rudeboy wrote:

xdude wrote:fair enough..
but what was shocking is tht big names like carrefore adapting such practices..

when you have majority of ppl from pakistan and india living and working in dubai wot do you expect? that everything would be fine? plz

corruption and ppl taking short cuts in UAE is something which I dont find suprising. In fact it happens across the Middle East.

it was only time when these ppl get caught and punished.

In fact it happened in Abu Dhabi not in Dubai, and it could happen in any place on earth.

Second, nationality has nothing to do with making troubles. Every nation has got its own devils.

Corruption is not confined to UAE or the Mid East. Corruption is invented and done by humans, and humans are every where.

Nothing surprising here, whilst I use Carrefore for bulk shopping I never purchase meat there.

I have had bad experiences with Carrefore. Stopped buying there sometime back. I have to say that I have never had a bad piece of fish, chicken or meat from Spinneys. It costs more but its worth it. Never had a bad experience with Geant. Fish market at Lulus in Al Barsha has always been good. Great selection.

I doubt any of the people in charge in Carrefours butchery section are sub continental......

rudeboy wrote:

xdude wrote:fair enough..
but what was shocking is tht big names like carrefore adapting such practices..

when you have majority of ppl from pakistan and india living and working in dubai wot do you expect? that everything would be fine? plz

corruption and ppl taking short cuts in UAE is something which I dont find suprising. In fact it happens across the Middle East.

it was only time when these ppl get caught and punished.

mate..i didn't start this discussion to hear this sub continent bashing......
this is a serious issue n who ever does this should be punished irrespective of its nationality..
and mind you tht if carrefore gets caught doing this, then the first person who should be accountable is its head in the region.. 'coz the buck finally stops with him...i can guess where would he be from..

the most important thing in all this is that this is currently in the public eye.

There's been recent related fatalities so a bit of heightened awareness by food retailers, restaurants and inspectors can only be a good thing for everyone going forward.

rudeboy wrote:when you have majority of ppl from pakistan and india living and working in dubai wot do you expect? that everything would be fine? plz

I think that was a really unnecessary statement.

But then again, looking at your screen name, I can see why...

It's down to training and awareness.

rudeboy wrote:

xdude wrote:fair enough..
but what was shocking is tht big names like carrefore adapting such practices..

when you have majority of ppl from pakistan and india living and working in dubai wot do you expect? that everything would be fine? plz

corruption and ppl taking short cuts in UAE is something which I dont find suprising. In fact it happens across the Middle East.

it was only time when these ppl get caught and punished.

I think your statement is totally wrong, most of the people working in Spinneys are also of the same origin, it has to be down to Management and training.

The blame has to be taken by the management and it cannot he lumped on to a few workers in the establishment. That is unless the workers have somehow shown that meat as destroyed or discarded and then they are recycling it.
Whatever may be the case it is management's responsibility whatever be their nationality.
Meat products, unlike vegetable products, when they go bad can even cause death. It is a serious matter and subcontinent bashing is not the answer. After all 5 star hotels are also mobbed by those nationalities on their service side. Around 50% of the population of the Emirates consists of those from the subcontinent. By that logic most of the outlets, restaurants and other eateries should be selling rotten meat.
If we see violations of this sort occurring anywhere we should report it pronto. The Emirates is fairly strict about these standards and I am sure authorities will not permit such a state of affairs to persist.
Bon apetit.