10/06/2023
10/06/2023
KUWAIT CITY, June 10: The Chairwoman of the Board of Directors has officially addressed the Director General of the Public Authority for Food and Nutrition (PAFN) Dr. Reem Al-Fulaij and the Acting Director General of Kuwait Municipality Eng. Saud Al-Dabbous regarding the need to cancel the activity of selling live poultry in shops in residential areas, and instead allow only licensed exhibitions for the sale of chilled chicken in order to preserve public health and consumer safety, reports Al-Qabas daily.
According to the letter sent by PAFN to the Kuwait Municipality, repeated requests were sent to the Ministry of Social Affairs for canceling the activity of selling live poultry in shops, and instead settling with licensing exhibitions to sell chilled chicken. The Ministry of Social Affairs reported that “identifying all the investment activities in the cooperative societies in the central markets and their affiliated branches in the residential plots are within the competence of the Kuwait Municipality, as per a decision issued by the Municipal Council.
Stressed
In the letter, PAFN stressed that the recommendation is based on the testimony of the Director of the Slaughterhouses Department and the Deputy Director General for Inspection and Control Affairs, and pursuant to the legal opinion issued by the Legal Affairs Department, in addition to a letter from the official of the Ahmadi slaughterhouse, in which a detailed explanation was given of the risks posed by presence of shops that sell, slaughter and process live poultry in residential areas. It stated that, “Based on the foregoing, and in the interest of the public and for ensuring the safety of consumers, please instruct the concerned authorities to quickly take the necessary measures in this regard.” In a related context, informed sources explained that this decision, if approved, will be applied to shops affiliated to cooperative societies and their branches in private housing areas that sell live chicken. As for investment housing areas, the matter will be discussed and a meeting will be held between the concerned authorities to take the required action after the study.
The implementation of the decision to cancel the activity of selling live poultry in private housing areas and limiting it to licensing exhibitions for the sale of chilled chicken only will not be applied without the approval of the Kuwait Municipality on this approach. There will be further meetings and discussions between the officials of PAFN and Kuwait Municipality. An appropriate mechanism will be discussed to ensure the achievement of the goals of the decision, topped by the need to preserve the health of consumers