The Health Department has issued a set of guidelines for the preparation of shawarma, a popular dish of Arabic origin, and one which has been incriminated in at least two incidents of food poisoning in the State, wherein two persons had lost their lives.
All vendors, hotels engaged in the preparation and sale of shawarma will have to mandatorily follow the new guidelines which focus on the maintenance of safety and hygiene when the dish is prepared and stored.
The department insists that all meat and raw materials used to prepare the dish, mayonnaise, and the salad that goes with it be sourced from FSSAI- approved vendors.
The meat and other raw material as well as bread stored in the freezer and chiller for preparing it should have proper labelling, with date and time tags indicating the date of storage and the date of expiry.
The rotisserie with the meat (the “cone” in shawarma stands) should be prepared fresh every time and it should remain at the proper chilling temperature till it is ready to be cooked.
The stands used to prepare the dish should not be exposed to dust and dirt. Clean and sanitised knife should be used to cut the meat from the grill stick.
All equipment involved, including freezers and chillers, should maintain proper temperature and temperature records should be maintained.
The meat should be cooked continuously at full heat (15 minutes for chicken and 30 minutes for beef) uninterrupted. Pieces of meat sliced from the cone must be submitted to a secondary cooking step (grilling, baking) to ensure that it is fully cooked. Secondary step cooking can be in the form of grilling, baking in the oven.
The guidelines recommend that raw eggs are avoided for the preparation of mayonnaise sauce served with the dish, which often becomes the source of bacterial contamination when it is prepared and left out.
Only pasteurised eggs should be used for making mayonnaise or else branded, store-bought mayonnaise should be used.
Mayonnaise once prepared should not be stored at room temperature for more than two hours . Left over mayonnaise should be stored below 4 degree centigrade and should not be storied from more than two days
It is recommended that after four hours of continuous cooking, any left over meat on the rotisserie at the end of a business day be discarded. To prevent wastage, vendors may prepare multiple meat “cones” of small size and store it at proper temperature
The department insists that shawarma sent out as parcels be labelled with date and time of preparation, along with the use-by date to avoid the risk of bacterial contamination
