The Supreme Council of Health Has Commissioned A Two Week Awareness Training

Doha, April 20 (QNA) - The Supreme Council of Health has commissioned a two week awareness training programme for food inspectors entitled "Risk Based Food Safety and Inspection Skills". The first week will focus on theoretical aspects while the second will concentrate on practical skills. The training program has two phases; the first phase starts on 20th April till 22nd June while the second phase starts on 31st August till 22nd November in which more than one group will be trained in the same time in order to be able to cover the highest number of inspectors. The course will train around 250 inspectors across the country from SCH & Municipalities. HE Dr. Sheikh Mohamed Bin Hamad Bin Jassim Al Thani, the Director of the Public Health Department at the SCH said the training will focus on recent developments in international best practice regarding management of food safety and what the inspector needs to look for when visiting a food business. Elaborating HE the Director of the Public Health Department at the SCH said that the program is being carried out out of the SCH's vision about the importance of the development of performance to keep pace with strategies and action plans of the Qatar National Vision 2030 and out of the firm belief in the need to provide qualified and skilled cadres capable of coping with the course of action as per the latest global systems in the field of health inspection and control of food. HE HE Dr. Sheikh Mohamed Bin Hamad Bin Jassim Al Thani further said that a key objective is to harmonize the skills of inspectors and to meet the highest standards required by the international best practice. The curriculum of the training course is based on international standards developed by the United Nations World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization. The courses will emphasize the need to take a risk-based approach to food safety, from farm to table. Inspectors will be reminded of the significant 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, he added. This will include ensuring that the food businesses have an appropriate understanding of international standards of Food Hygiene Practice and Food Safety Management systems including HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point). HE further said that the food inspectors will also receive training in how to optimize their skills when inspecting food businesses and collecting samples for analysis by the Food Control Laboratory. All inspectors will be assessed and issued with a certificate from the UK-based training contractor Campden BRI. The results from the assessments will be used to develop individual training road maps for the future training of food inspectors, HE sheikh mohamed bin hamad bin jassim al thani noted. (END)