Sunday 17 / November / 2024
Muscat: Restaurants, cosmetic shops and barber shops in nine Omani governorates will face heftier fines if found violating the new health and safety regulations.
To curb the rising number of health and safety violations in local restaurants and barber shops, 29 new kinds of violations were added to the list recently, with fines reaching up to OMR500.
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According to an official at the Ministry of Regional Municipalities and Water Resources (MRMWR), the health regulations and violations list had been amended very few times since 1999.
Hamad bin Saif Al Gharibi, deputy minister of MRMWR, announced the new list of violations last week. Explaining the updated list of don’ts, Fadhila Al Bahri, director of Preventive Health Management at the ministry, said the punishments for various offences were not acting as an effective “deterrent” and violators were getting away by paying fines on the spot.
Read also: Call to raise the food safety standards at restaurants in Oman
“This was leading to repeated violations which ultimately resulted in more health issues affecting consumers,” she explained, adding coffee shops and restaurants flouting health regulations were leading to frequent cases of food poisoning.
Increased fines were being imposed in Musandam, Al Wusta, Al Buraimi, North and South Al Batinah, Al Dhahirah, Al Dakhiliyah and the North and South Al Sharqiyah governorates, which, all together, include 44 wilayats, which are all under jurisdiction of MRMWR.
However, Muscat, Dhofar and the wilayat of Sohar are not on the list. “Sanctions in Muscat are obviously higher than in other governorates, that’s why not all new regulations apply to it,” she clarified.
The highest fine on the old list was OMR300, which was imposed on an eatery for causing a case of food poisoning. In the new law, the fine has been increased to OMR500, and the restaurant must be closed until investigations are over.
Lose permit
The law reads: “In case the violation is repeated, the fine will be doubled and the owner will lose his permit for the next six months.”
The investigation is to be carried out by health inspectors who have to report any suspicious case to laboratories and take samples of the food for analysis.
Previously, working in an establishment without permit used to attract a fine of OMR30, but now it has been raised to OMR50.
Some fines were doubled and some were increased six fold. For example, working without a valid health card used to attract a fine of OMR5 per worker. Now, it has been increased to OMR30 per worker.
Interestingly, barbers who used “unsuitable” towels or tools were slapped with a fine of OMR5 only; now the fine has been increased to OMR50 in addition to a provison that such unfit tools be destroyed. The same punishment now goes for using unsterilized tools.
“We updated the list to ensure high safety and health standards for consumers in Oman,” said Al Bahri.
Moreover, slaughtering cattle and chicken in traditional kitchens and unauthorised places will cost the violator OMR100, while earlier, it was only OMR30.
The MRMWR issued 34,290 permits for food-related activities in 2015 in Musandam, Al Wusta, Al Buraimi, North and South Al Batinah, Al Dhahirah, Al Dakhiliyah and the North and South Al Sharqiyah governorates.
The permits include 3,767 factories, 22,143 grocery stores, 2,442 restaurants and 5,938 coffee shops.
Of the above mentioned areas, North Al Batinah received the highest number of permits at 7,563, including 616 for factories, 5,850 for shops and grocery stores, 401 for restaurants and 725 for coffee shops.
In 2015, the rate of violations to the number of permits stood at 12.35 per cent.
Officials at the MRMWR said they were optimistic that the rate will come down next year after proper implementation of the new regulations.
