Campden BRI appointed by Qatar Government to launch national food safety programme

Campden BRI has been chosen by the Qatar Supreme Council of Health to oversee an ambitious programme to improve the country’s food safety.

Campden BRI is designing and managing a comprehensive programme to train more than 250 of Qatar’s food inspectors via a series of intensive workshops. The “Risk-Based Food Safety Inspections Skills” workshops, which will include both theoretical and practical elements, will run over 18 weeks throughout this year and will be delivered in Arabic by Taylor Shannon International on behalf of Campden BRI.

Dr Anton Alldrick, Special Projects Manager at Campden BRI, said the courses would emphasise the need to take a risk-based approach to food safety, from farm to table:

“The inspectors will be reminded of the significant food safety hazards that can be associated with food, how these are prevented and what evidence the inspector should look for to ensure that food businesses are correctly managed. This will include ensuring that the food businesses have an appropriate understanding of international standards of food hygiene practice and food safety management systems.”

The Head of the National Committee for Food Safety, Dr Sheikh Mohamed al-Thani, said:

“The training will help our inspectors understand the risks associated with various food items in the long term. We hope to provide the same level of competency to all inspectors, transfer knowledge from the West and make Qatar gain high international standards in food safety which is line with the Qatar National Vision 2030.”

Wassan Abdullah al-Baker, Food safety and Environmental Health Manager, Supreme Council of Health, said: “The training is designed to make inspections on the basis of the risks involved in each food item at specific stages and the strategies for risk evaluation will be provided during the sessions.”