Dubai, January 12: The Dubai Municipality does not have any evidence to prove if food poisoning killed the D’Souza children seven months ago. The sensational case, however, prompted the civic body to spruce up the food safety surveillance system in Dubai, senior officials said on Monday.
Different authorities in Dubai had launched parallel and joint investigations after five-year-old Nathan D’Souza and his seven-year-old sister Chelsea passed away in June 2009. The children, along with their mother Anne Sophie, a French expatriate, had fallen ill after they ate food delivered from a restaurant in Al Nahda.
Tests conducted by the municipality ruled out toxic bacteria in the samples of food eaten by the family.
The Dubai Public Prosecution, which sent samples abroad for lab tests, also concluded that it was not a case of food poisoning. Following, this, Lotus Garden Restaurant was given a green signal to reopen after a three month-long closure.
However, there are still no answers as to what killed the children since the court case and the investigation report, by the Dubai Health Authority with regard to the alleged medical negligence by hospitals which treated the victims, are still pending.
Speaking at a press conference held to announce the details of the fifth Dubai International Food Safety Conference, Director of the Food Control Department Khalid Sherif Al Awadhi said the report from the police and public prosecution made it clear that the food safety system here was fine.
“But, the case made us do a lot of improvement in the system and we did make lots of changes after that.”
Al Awadhi said the case prompted the department to focus more on promoting a culture of self-monitoring rather than following a reactive system of inspections followed by violations.
“We changed our grading system (moving) from the activities of the business premises to the type of food they are dealing with. The concept changed from food inspection to food monitoring,” he said.
Officials said new safety protocols were implemented in restaurants and cafeterias, and training programmes were organised for managers and staff. A series of food safety awareness programmes were also conducted for the industry and the public, including housewives. Acting head of Food Studies and Planning Unit at the department Basher Hassan Yousif said the impact of the campaigns would be analysed through a study to be held soon in cooperation with UAE University.
The study would also analyse the knowledge and attitude about food safety issues among thousands of people.
“We are going to further strengthen inspectors during the conference. Experts from the World Health Organisation and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention will conduct workshops to update their knowledge and skills in the field, especially in food-borne disease investigations,” Yousif said.
Several other high-profile speakers are also scheduled to attend the conference to be held from February 21 to 24 at Dubai International Convention Centre alongside Gulfood 2010. A website (www.foodsafetydubai.com) has been launched to give details of the conference which will tackle advancements and best practices in food safety.
--Agencies
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