Doha, November 01 (QNA) The Ministry of Public Health confirmed that its safety department is working to ensure that the level of safety and quality of food handled and served during the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar is the best and highest compared to the previous World Cup tournaments.

The Food Safety Department at the Ministry of Public Health is committed to using international best practices and providing all technical and human requirements to ensure that all imported and locally produced food products sold within Qatar comply with the highest quality assurance standards.

The efforts of the Ministry of Public Health in the field of food safety are one of the pillars of health security for the “Sports for Health” partnership program between the Ministry of Public Health and the World Health Organization. The health security pillar of this three-year partnership is committed to placing safety and security at the core of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. With a particular focus on risk assessment, protocols for mass gatherings inside and outside stadiums, event-related monitoring to protect people from infectious disease outbreaks, and risk communication.

Verification of food safety requirements includes a set of control measures for food preparation, handling and storage, to prevent foodborne infections and diseases, as potential sources of danger are tracked throughout all stages of the food chain, starting from the harvest stage to the stages of processing or packaging for transportation, distribution and until the arrival of materials food to the consumer's table, where ensuring safe practices is critical to food safety.

Ms. Wassan Abdullah Al-Baker, Director of the Food Safety Department at the Ministry of Public Health said that the department's role is to work closely with all relevant stakeholders to promote and maintain a culture of food safety among all parties involved in the food supply chain.

She added in a press statement today that from the moment the imported food arrives in Qatar, the food safety teams in the ministry are working to ensure their compliance with the highest quality assurance standards, as the ministry's laboratories that have international accreditation ISO 17025 and are distributed between the central laboratory and its branches in both Hamad Port and Al Ruwais facilitate Inspect and clear imported food shipments quickly and effectively. Local and border inspection services have been accredited by the American Accreditation Office in accordance with the international standards "ISO 17020".

She pointed out that the inspections are subject to the risk assessment approach, which depends on the compatibility of the inspection level with the potential risk level for each food item according to its nature, origin and date of validity.

Mrs. Wasan Al-Baker stated that the food safety teams of the Ministry of Health are carrying out inspections around the clock at all border access points and food outlets in Qatar, including factories, supermarkets, restaurants and commercial kitchens.

She stressed that food safety is a shared responsibility between governments, producers and consumers, by following standard and simple food safety practices including maintaining hand hygiene during food preparation, washing fruits and vegetables thoroughly before cooking and before eating them fresh, and avoiding keeping ready-to-eat food hot or cold. Refrigerated at room temperature for a long time, in addition to avoiding buying uncovered foods and foods exposed to any source of contamination, reading the food label to determine the content and expiration date, using serving utensils and avoiding touching foods when eating from the buffet, and not using the same serving utensils of different foodstuffs that May contain allergens, in order to avoid the transfer of contaminants between the different food items served in the buffets.

Food risks are considered renewable, multiple and spreadable. Therefore, the Ministry of Public Health has recently worked to develop its monitoring capabilities to comply with international best practices in this regard, and to reduce the level of risk to the minimum possible, by launching a new electronic food safety system called “Wathiq”, where the new system facilitates An advanced food control process, based on standard operating procedures subject to international accreditation controls, using three electronically linked systems: the control system for imported and exported foods, the food control system in local markets, and the electronic management of food analysis lab