catering round-up
Keeping watch – food safety
innovation around the world
The Russell Partnership’s Professor David Russell and Charlotte
Harbour tell us about FoodWatch, a new digital platform for food
safety and nutrition in Dubai
O
ur work continues
in the Middle East
planning one of the
world’s largest and longest food
events – 52 million meals in
173 days, yes real numbers!
Visitor satisfaction is always
a high priority in all service
industries but never beats food
safety, so with this month’s
issue focused on safety, we talk
through a few key thoughts
and a sector global first.
From small events to mega
events, understanding the
types of potential threats to
the food supply chain will
help determine the most
56 | www.universitybusiness.co.uk | @UB_UK
effective controls to reduce the
likelihood of the risk. Food
providers are, of course, required
to manage their approach to
food defence and security by
identifying and mitigating
against the risk from malicious
and ideologically motivated
attacks to food products which
may lead to contamination
or supply disruption.
A Threat Assessment Critical
Control Point (TACCP)
approach is a good food safety
benchmark to be adopted as
part of your risk-management
process. This will support the
assessment of the nature and
size of the threat, vulnerability
of your operation, and risks
from which critical controls
can be identified, particularly
concerning access to food
preparation areas, tamper
detection and assurance
measures to determine
personnel security… is your
approach up to date and secure?
Now for a piece of
innovation – we are working
in Dubai with FoodWatch.
FoodWatch is Dubai
Municipality’s digital platform
designed to collect and analyse
all food-related data to ensure
safe and nutritious food for
consumers. Its main objective
is to digitise documents and
records maintained by more
than 20,000 organisations
that are involved in verifying
regulatory compliance:
importing; selling or processing
food; offering services for
food safety and nutrition;
providing training, consultancy
or certification; and/or
supplying food equipment.
The platform when fully
functional, by 2020, will
have smart applications that
will provide ‘customised’
information and functionalities
to the government authorities,
food industry, and consumers
alike that would ensure not
only that foods can be traced to
their source, but also that they
are processed and consumed
safely – watch this space!
The facts speak for
themselves when you note that,
Dubai imports approximately
$200bn of food products
from around 200 countries
and food-borne illnesses are
responsible for 420,000 deaths
a year worldwide, according to
the World Health Organization
(WHO). Although food-
borne diseases rank among
the global community’s
most preventable illnesses, a
recent WHO report reveals
that almost one in 10 people
contract a food-related illness
every year. Astonishingly, the
loss of otherwise healthy life
years attributed to premature
death and disability caused
by food-related illness is 33
million years annually.
I say we all need
to play our part!
www.foodwatch.ae