by Sarah Gain, Arabian Business.com on Wednesday, 23 January 2008
Today the HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control point) system of food safety management is the most effective way for F&B businesses to ensure consumer protection. The application of effective HACCP-based controls across the food chain help to reduce food-borne disease and most four- and five-star hotels in Dubai are striving to become HACCP certified as per the Dubai Municipality legislations.
And the Emirates Marina Hotel & Residence is no exception, according to the property’s chief steward and hygiene officer, Johann D’souza.
“Inadequate food temperature control is one of the most common causes of food-borne illness and food spoilage,” he said. “Foods that need temperature control for safety must be held either at a temperature at or above 65°C, or below a temperature of 5°C and food safety management systems should be in place to ensure that temperature is controlled effectively.”
While most hotel kitchens monitor and record temperature readings every four hours, according to D’souza, during busy operations this important duty is sometimes forgotten. For this reason, the newly-opened The Harbour Hotel & Residences has installed a wireless TempTrak temperature monitoring system to automatically monitor the temperature of all the chillers, freezers and dishwashers in its kitchen, and to monitor humidity levels in its dry food stores.
“Wireless temperature monitoring is one of the most exciting innovations happening in the foodservice industry today, especially related to customer safety,” explained D’souza. “The advantages of using the TempTrak temperature monitoring system include the fact that it takes temperatures and humidity readings of our equipment every five minutes, so employees can spend more time on other important items.”
The system eliminates the time and expense of manual temperature collecting, said D’souza. “We no longer need to visit and record temperatures of walk-in coolers and other temperature equipment and there can be no falsification of records,” he added.
To make optimum use of the new system, all personals concerned with temperature control have been trained to understand the importance of the relationship between temperature control and food safety, said D’souza.
“We have made it mandatory for all food handlers to undergo basic food hygiene training, HACCP awareness trainings, and a two-day hygiene training,” he explained. “It is also mandatory for managers to undergo intermediate food hygiene training, and all our HACCP committee members have also undergone intermediate HACCP training.”
