Being part of its efforts to raise food safety awareness level among public and being a component to achieve its vision to build a sustainable food sector in the emirate, Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority has distributed recently 70 thousand leaflets across the emirate.

Since food safety is to be a big concern during Ramadan and summer, ADFCA leaflets gives consumers valuable instructions related to shopping, cooking, and storing of food. Things to be taken care of during purchasing, cooking and placing food in the refrigerator are well explained in the leaflet with the focus being given to avoid the risk of cross-contamination.

The main thing to be considered while shopping is to purchase wise and responsibly according to ADFCA. It urges consumers to take time to read the labels on food products carefully before picking them up in order to know the expiry date, ingredients and source of the product, a must-do to avoid food allergies and other health risks.

According to the food control body of Abu Dhabi, keeping food in appropriate temperature levels is another important thing related the safety of food. The leaflet urges consumers to leave home immediately from the shop after purchase because variation in the temperature level may cause damage to many food items. It reminds to pick frozen items only in the end of shopping and to place the food only in the air-conditioned area of the car, simple but important things most consumers forget always.

ADFCA warns consumers not to pick any food cans with dents as well as tins with rust on them. It also warns of the risk caused by the mix-up of food items and detergents, raw food and cooked food, meat and vegetables inside the shopping cart.

In the kitchen, cleanliness is the most important pre-requisite for food safety according to ADFCA. It urges housewives to wash hands well and keep the areas of preparation and dish wash clean in order to ensure safety of food. Using same cutting-board for meat and vegetables will inevitably invite the risk of cross-contamination, so, ADFCA suggests to use separate boards for meat and vegetables. A plastic cutting board will do better than a wooden one as the cleaning is easy for the latter, says ADFCA. People normally tend to taste food using their fingers during cooking process which ADFCA doesn't entertain, instead, it asks to use a spoon for that to keep food safe.

In the refrigerator, to keep food in small and sealed containers is the best practice while mixing up cooked and raw food and meat and vegetable are wrong practices which may invite serious food safety risks. Hot food is advised to be cooled in room temperature before placing it in the refrigerator. The ideal consumption time is soon after cooking, and if to be consumed later it should be kept at 63 Celsius heat.

ADFCA, being keen on imparting awareness about food safety, is using varied means to reach out to public of which distributing awareness materials is an important component. Apart from distributing leaflets, the authority is active on social media to spread latest information and knowledge related to safety of food especially during Ramadan.