Deaths led to better food safety, Dubai says

A candlelight vigil at St Mary's Church in Dubai last year for Nathan and Chelsea D'Souza, who died of food poisoning.

DUBAI // One year after two children died of suspected food poisoning, Dubai Municipality says it has taken exhaustive measures to prevent a repeat of the tragedy. Nathan and Chelsea D'Souza, ages five and seven, died on June 13 and 14 after being taken to the hospital the night before with their mother, Ann Sofia, and the family's housekeeper.

One part of the municipality's measures has been to train so-called inspection instructors. A number of food establishments were required to appoint a staff member to attend the programme, which includes training in food and safety standards. The first group concluded their training last week. "After the incident, we conducted a study on some establishments that had received D and E grades, which were the lowest grades in food standards. One manager from each of these food outlets, as well as other good restaurants, were included in this programme to train them on how to deal with food," said Ahmed al Ali, head of food inspections at Dubai Municipality.

Bobby Krishna, senior food studies and surveys officer, who helped create the new programme, added: "The municipality has made changes in the way we are inspecting. We are looking at empowering the managers in food business to ensure safe processes. "We are more focused on what we call as high-risk practices that could lead to food poisoning. It is important to source food from a good supplier. It is important to cook food to safe temperature, it is important to hold food hot until it is served or refrigerate the food until used."

There are 12,732 active food outlets in Dubai. Mr al Ali said plans to revamp food safety had been in place since the beginning of 2009, but the children's deaths had speeded up the process. He said they were aready seeing results. "Analysis by our computer systems show that more than 94 per cent of the establishments comply with the food safety standards set by the municipality. Last year, it was below 91 per cent," he said.

Additionally, the number of violations per inspection has dropped to 0.3 compared with one violation per visit last year, Mr al Ali said. The municipality also invited a team from the internationally accredited Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US to train local food control officers. Seven per cent of food warehouses inspected in Dubai last week did not comply with the hygienic requirements of the municipality.

Sultan al Tahir, head of the product control section in the food control department, said the campaign covered 257 warehouses that stored dry, chilled and frozen food items. Patrick D'Souza and his wife chose to remain away from the media yesterday and did not want to comment. The parents had expressed hope that the death of their "little angels" would result in reforms. The D'Souza family has planned a mass at the St. Mary's Church in Dubai tomorrow in honour of their children. More than 500 mourners had gathered at the same church a year ago for a candlelight vigil.

A Nepalese cook, TR, 26, and his Filipino supervisor, ES, 34, were charged on March 1, along with the Lotus Garden restaurant where they both worked, in connection with the case. Prosecutors claim that unhygienic storage of food by restaurant staff led to the deaths. A doctor, ET, 47, who worked at the New Medical Centre hospital, is also accused of medical negligence in the case. All parties have denied the charges against them.