Members of Health Control Development of the MME during a visit to a Baldana milk factory.
Doha: The Health Control Development Team at the Office of the Assistant Undersecretary for Municipal Affairs at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment visited milk factories of Baladna for Food Industries located within Al Khor and Al Zakhira Municipality.
The visit is a part of the team’s plan to develop health monitoring practice at food processing units across the municipalities, including the production of milk and juices, to assess the current situation and develop alternative plans for its development.
The visit aimed to ensure the implementation of health and safety measures for product packaging and adherence of workers to health requirements and standard of the country.
The health control team inspected the area for receiving milks, which contains six tanks with a capacity of 80 tonnes of milk each to receive the daily production of milk, as it is stored at a temperature of minus 4 Celsius.
The milk products undergo accurate laboratory check up before pumping it to the next stage of pasteurisation process and preparation, whether for fresh milk or milk that is thermally treated with ultra-heat treatment, or super pasteurization. It is a food processing technology to disinfect liquid foods and milk mainly by heating it above 135°C - the temperature which required to kill germs in the milk for 1 to 2 second enabling to preserve milk for a period of up to three months.
The team also inspected the rest of the production stages for fresh milk and thermal treatment, through the stage of preparation, storage and packaging, as all these processes are being done automatically and without any human intervention.
The team members were briefed on all steps and processes that are closely monitored to ensure smooth flow of all production steps in accordance with international standards and the standard specifications in force in this regard to ensure a safe product with international specifications.
The team also examined the cheese production plant and all stages of processing milk into cheese of various types that cover the needs of the local market. The team monitored all the procedures followed towards sterilisation and disinfection of the tools and devices used during the production process to ensure a safe and high quality food product.
Samples are being taken on regular basis from all the factory products by municipal inspectors of Al Khor and Al Zakhira, which checks and reviews at all stages to ensure its safety.
The Health Control Development Team at the Office of the Assistant Undersecretary for Municipal Affairs comprised of Nawal Muhammad Abdullah as head of the team, and a number of doctors and inspectors from five municipalities, namely: Dr. Ashraf Mansour from Al Rayyan Municipality; Dr. Sabri Ali and Dr. Ahed Al Hamrouni from Al Khor and Al Zakhira Municipality; Dr. Imad Wanas from Umm Salal Municipality; Dr. Muhammad Metwally from Al Wakra Municipality; Dr. Ashraf Al Wali from Al Daayen Municipality; in addition to Eng. Mahmoud Kamel, Nawal Al Mahmoud, and Awatif Al Bahr.
