Dubai: Dubai Municipality fined Spinnys, a popular supermarket chain located in Uptown Mirdif after a customer spotted cockroaches in its salad bar section and complained to the authorities.
The complainant an Iranian entrepreneur Ali Reza, informed Khaleej Times when the incident happened.
Cockroaches in salad bar, Popular supermarket chain #Spinneys fined Read more: http://t.co/9dpTAuUKAH pic.twitter.com/XPDuL9Reh7
— Khaleej Times (@khaleejtimes) July 14, 2015
"I approached the food counter where employees serve pre-cooked food. While glancing at the different trays of dishes, I noticed several cockroaches crawling around the hummus, and the staff serving the food to customers were somehow inexplicably unaware of this," he said.
"I immediately snapped a picture in my phone, which alerted the staff. They hurriedly removed the tray from the counter, but did not find it pertinent to remove the other trays as well in case of contamination."
The municipality's Food Control Department investigated the incident once the complaint was filed. Head of Food Inspection Section Sultan Ali Al Taher ensured that the violation will not repeated.
The municipality did not disclose the amount of the fine, though the firm was fined.
According to municipality's principal food inspector Bobby Krishna, “It is not about the fine. It is about the corrective and preventive action," said. However, agreed that was a clear case of contamination.
A Spinneys spokesperson said in an email, "We will be reporting back to the Dubai Municipality with our corrective actions regarding this complaint."
"We are committed to maintaining the highest quality and food safety standards in all our stores and regret that such an incident occurred despite scheduled routine pest control treatments and additional inspection and monitoring audits carried out by DM approved third party specialists."
Reza said he was "quite aghast at such an incident occurring in plain sight in a well-respected outlet such as Spinneys, which is supposed to have the highest quality standards."
He claimed to have found other food items like biscuits and chocolates which were past their expiry date.
"I had even informed the management of this after which they immediately removed the items. But this seems to be a continuing trend and I reckoned it as my responsibility to inform the public, regardless of how upscale the outlet may appear to be."
Spinneys did not comment about the allegations about the expired products.