This QR code will reveal the food safety record of a restaurant
EATERIES MUST SHOW CODE WITH GRADES IN HYGIENE AND SAFETY CHECKS
Choosing food based on hygiene and safety in eateries will now be a click away for diners in Dubai, thanks to a new QR Code system launched by Dubai Municipality yesterday.
The Food Safety Department will issue the smartphonereadable codes to food outlets through its Food Watch digital platform.
When they scan the QR code of an eatery with their smartphones, consumers will be able to open a webpage that shows various details of the outlet, including its rating in hygiene and food safety standards.
It will be mandatory for food outlets to display the QR codes as and when they are issued one, officials said after Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and UAE Minister of Finance, launched the system at the Gulfood Exhibition 2019 in Dubai yesterday.
There are over 18,000 food businesses in various categories according to Dubai Municipality. QR codes will be issued to all of them in phases, starting with hotels, restaurants and other eateries in popular areas.
The food businesses are issued grades from A to E based on the standards of hygiene and food safety and the number and nature of violations recorded during inspections.
In 2015, the municipality came up with a colour-coded sticker system that allowed diners to know the grades issued to food outlets.
Paperless services
Though displaying such stickers only became mandatory by the start of this year, officials said, the civic body has opted for the smart system of showing the ratings to ensure better transparency, improved food safety and paperless services.
Minister of State for Food Security Mariam Saeed Hareb Al Muhairi, who was briefed about the new system, said it is a great initiative by Dubai Municipality.
“It’s all about giving the consumers the tools to be able to judge for themselves about certain restaurants … What about the food safety at this restaurant? Is it at the highest levels possible? So, the consumers can choose themselves if they want to dine in this area or not,” she told Gulf News.
“These initiatives are very important for food security because it really elevates food safety in the country which is very important to be able to improve our food security ranking and hopefully become number one in the future.”
Dawood Al Hajiri, director general of Dubai Municipality, said the initiative offers “big transparency to all customers.”
“We are emphasising that [transparency]. We have already issued the QR codes to several food businesses. Dubai World Trade Centre was the first one to be issued a QR Code and they have an A grade,” he told Gulf News.
No cheating, more safety
The web page dedicated to each outlet is linked to the Food Watch where all details related to all the food establishments are stored digitally.
Hence, outlets cannot cheat consumers by placing wrong colour coded stickers in their premises.
“Even if any food outlet displays an old sticker to show a good rating it had got in a previous inspection and hides the new one where its poor rating is shown, the QR code will show the latest grade with the date of last inspection updated on Food Watch,” explained Eman Al Bastaki, director of the Food Safety Department.
“Eateries have the choice to place it on the door, table, menu, phones or anywhere else that is convenient for the customers to scan the code,” she said.
When their rating is publicly available businesses are expected to compete with each other to raise safety and hygiene standards. “This will work in favour of businesses that maintain good standards to attract more business.”
In future, she said, customers will also be able to check the details of the licences issued to food businesses.