Oman's food safety awareness campaign goes national

Muscat: Monday might have been Oman’s busiest food awareness day of the year.
Municipalities in Batinah, Sharqiya, Dahira, Dakhilia, Wusta, Buraimi and Musandam have coordinated to launch a campaign called, “Your sustenance is for safekeeping,” which is aimed at educating citizens on healthy foodstuff practices.
The Ministry of Municipalities said in a statement, “The campaign is region-wide and will run from August 6 until the end of the month. This field campaign aims to highlight the ministry’s role in regulating and inspecting foodstuff establishments through educating all segments of our society about how important it is to deal correctly with food, especially as related to what they buy from stores.”
“We also wish to strengthen awareness about how important societal contribution is to these topics (food safety). We intend to run coordinated inspections, hold lectures, and also throw some entertaining competitions, including in sports.”
The initiative launched yesterday, started in Dhank, Al Dahira’s awareness hall in its Municipality. Other municipalities have also had and will continue to have their own localized launch events in which citizens can join in.
So far, activities in Batinah have ranged from inspection, along with summer camp students, to leaflets that talk about eight steps for cleaner meals and healthier water.
Sharqiya started a ‘Little Inspector’ campaign, where children were taken to store inspections. In Sur, the Omani Women’s Association also held a discussion revolving around responsible shopping. Dahira supported the project by kicking off their own launch ceremony with an educational play, and a workshop about plastic containers.
In Dakhilia, a caravan was inaugurated, carrying cloth bags to be handed out to the citizens of Hamra. Nizwa held a panel discussion, where people debated the best health practices. Wusta put up road signs to support future events. Buraimi began their list of events with a children’s clown show and, signs which pointed towards the health benefits of various fruits and vegetables, and digital billboards.
Musandam supplemented its inspections with warnings against using newspapers to wrap foods, as well as warnings against shopping for fruits in stores without air conditioning.