Eating out at restaurants, is it safe for us?

By Fahad Al Ghadani — MUSCAT: March 8 - How safe are we after consuming food from the restaurants? No one can tell about the consequences as every day the public gets shocked by new case on violating the health norms when providing food for public. The public is wondering if it is the time to stop eating outside their houses.  Faisal al Saadi, lives in Muscat with his friends, says that the situation here force him and his friends to consume restaurants and street food. “It is difficult to get homemade food here. My family live in Batinah and I am not a good cook,” said Al Saadi. He added that he has no choices but to look for the best restaurants considering the health measure and the history of the restaurants. “We always read the news of restaurants selling food using rotten ingredients or similar issues. Everything is not guaranteed nowadays,” said Al Saadi. He also said that he often get stomach ache. “This became like a habit for me. I am getting used to it,” said Al Saadi.

Similarly, Sulaiman al Zidi, lives with wife and kids in Muscat, says that he always tries to limit consuming non homemade food. “I know it’s a change to have food out in restaurants. This means a lot to my family. However, I try to limit that convincing them that it’s not good for their health,” said Al Zidi.

Last year, the Minister of Regional Municipalities and Water Resources imposed a move in order to protect the public from poor hygiene by installing CCTV surveillance in an effort in restaurants and fast-food joints in Oman.

Ten ministry-approved restaurants, including tourist locations, fast food centres, butchers and slaughter houses were part of a trial as the ministry has installed cameras in the kitchens and storerooms of them. The Ministry stated that time that it will be installing more cameras in other restaurants. This is to keep a tab on food hygiene and safety

The minister added that the project enjoys full confidentiality and comes under the Municipalities Regulation Law issued by Royal Decree No 96/2000 as stated in Article 16 of the food safety Law promulgated by Royal Decree No 84/2008 that regulators regulate all means of food transport and inspection at any time.

Article No 52 in the Local Ordinance No 1/2006 issued by Muscat Municipality regarding the protection of Public Health states that whoever violates the local ordinance shall pay a penalty of not more than RO 200 for the first and RO 500 when repeating the violation.