By Sidi Mohamed
DOHA: The Ministry of Economy and Commerce would soon take charge from the Ministry of Municipality and Environment as the monitoring and inspecting authority for outlets like beauty salons, laundries and massage centres.
Inspectors from the Ministry of Economy and Commerce are being trained to carry out checks at the facilities to ensure compliance with health, safety and commercial rules.
As soon as the inspection teams are ready to carry out their duties efficiently, the economy ministry will take over the responsibility from the civic ministry.
A senior municipal official told The Peninsula yesterday that a law to the effect has already been passed and practical steps are being taken to help implement it.
“However, right now the onus of conducting checks in beauty salons for women and men, laundries and massage centres, among other facilities, are on us at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment,” said Majdi Borhan Zaidan.
“A few months ago, we closed a beauty salon for women in our area for 10 days for mixing some creams, following a complaint by a woman who said its application caused harm,” said Zaidan, Head, Health Control Section, Al Rayyan Municipality. “We also fined the parlour.”
Inspecting and monitoring all eateries and food outlets, including supermarkets, will continue to be the responsibility of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, he added.
In an interview with The Peninsula yesterday, he said the first thing they check in an eatery or supermarket is how they have stored milk and its products, fresh meat and fish because these are very sensitive items and, if stored unsafely, can cause immense harm to consumers.
Storage of fresh vegetables is mostly safe and can be dangerous only when some chemical pollution has taken place, said the official.
About violations, he said food hygiene is the main factor as at least 90 percent of violations found at eateries are related to food handlers.
Workers lack awareness as eateries mostly replace them with new ones every six-seven months.
Not using gloves, preparing food in unhygienic conditions, and storing food in places not clean are some of the common violations registered.
“In the past three months, we have closed down 17 food outlets, including about nine in February. Last year, 34 outlets were closed down, mostly restaurants.
On average, three-four outlets are shut down a month and closure decisions are taken by the director of the municipality.
“In an urgent case, we communicate with the director and send a report backed by a photograph to take quick decision,” said Zaidan.
“For example, if there are huge insects or rodents in an outlet or sanitary conditions are bad, we stop the outlet from operating and send a report to the director.
“Normally, it takes two or three days to close an errant outlet as we have to prepare a report for the director, and slap fines for the violation, which range from QR7,500 to QR15,000. The former is for violations such as storing or using expired food and the latter for breaching rules related to specification standards.”
The Peninsula
