BEIRUT: Health Minister Wael Abu Faour is set to dish the dirt Thursday on which of the capital’s restaurants and supermarkets are selling contaminated food, the second, much-anticipated installment in a week of high-profile food industry accusations that have overshadowed Lebanon’s myriad other concerns.
The minister is due to announce the results of laboratory tests conducted on samples taken from restaurants and other food establishments in Beirut, just two days after he named and shamed popular restaurant chains and supermarkets in areas across Lebanon that were discovered to be selling edible goods with traces of sewage and fecal matter.
Abu Faour’s announcement drew different reactions from industry officials and businessmen Wednesday, with some vowing to back a campaign for better food standards, and others cautioning against the defamation of the restaurant sector in light of the absence of a food safety law and clear, across-the-board standards.
Prime Minister Tammam Salam commended Abu Faour’s efforts to tighten control on food safety during a meeting with the minister at the Grand Serail Wednesday.
Salam expressed his complete support for the initiative, encouraging the minister to carry on and “take suitable legal measures against those who expose the health of the Lebanese to dangers.”
MP Walid Jumblatt, whose Progressive Socialist Party is represented in the government by Abu Faour and Agriculture Minister Akram Chehayeb, said the health minister had his full backing.
“The most important thing is to keep up the fight till the end,” Jumblatt said in comments published Wednesday. “This should not just create a temporary uproar because people’s health is in danger.”
But Tourism Minister Michel Pharaon cautioned that Abu Faour’s revelations about food safety violations, including a blacklist comprising well-known restaurant and supermarket chains, should be confirmed through a thorough investigation to avoid defamation.
“It is better not to name restaurants before the judiciary issues its decision, particularly given there are questions as to how samples are taken and results issued,” Pharaon said. “Establishments did not have the opportunity to defend themselves.”
“Any Health Ministry inspector monitoring public safety should satisfy certain standards and the same applies for restaurants,” he said. “There are questions about whether the food sample reaching the laboratory [for tests] was still in the same temperature [as at the restaurant].” Pharaon said restaurants in Lebanon were already enforcing health requirements by themselves and satisfied health standards stipulated by the Economy Ministry’s Consumer Protection Department and the Tourism Ministry.
“They care about this issue because they provide over 5,000 meals a day and not a single food poisoning incident has happened for years,” he said, without providing evidence to back up his claim.
The minister called for a food safety draft law, which was drafted in 2003, to be amended and passed. It was originally rejected by Parliament because some ministries argued that it infringed on their various powers.
Pharaon’s comments came after he met a delegation of tourist associations.
Tony al-Rami, the president of the Syndicate of Owners of Restaurants, Cafes, Nightclubs and Sweetshops in Lebanon, said it was unfair to defame all restaurants just because one did not meet food safety standards.
“Food safety standards requested by ministries are not the same … particularly given the food safety draft law has yet to be endorsed,” he said.
But Abu Faour stood his ground in light of the criticism, slamming officials for putting profit and prestige before public health.
“If a certain minister considers that tourism and the economy can only thrive at the expense of the health of the citizen and his corpse then this isn’t tourism and this isn’t an economy,” the health minister said during an event in Beirut, alluding to Pharaon.
He stressed that more than one sample was taken from each tested location, and that tests were properly carried out in a governmental lab and not a private one. “Tests have revealed that some products are sound while others are unfit [for consumption] which confirms that the tests are objective.”
Charles Arbid, the head of the Lebanese Franchise Association, said Lebanese franchise restaurants had a clean record and abided by international regulations for food safety, adding that most or all of such eateries had ISO quality certificates, clear evidence that they were obeying the rules.
Abu Faour has said four franchise restaurants in Lebanon are in violation of food safety measures.
“We intend to meet the [health] minister Thursday to hear what he has to say and also explain our position on this matter,” Arbid told The Daily Star. “There could be an error in transferring the food items to the labs. We just need to understand what exactly happened.”
