In the wake of a contaminated squid scare, Bahraini Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa on Sunday warned of tough penalties to protect the public's health from spoiled or otherwise harmful food.
The premier ordered public health authorities to step up checks to ensure that food that had spoiled or passed its expiry date was no longer offered for sale to the public, reported the Gulf Daily News.
He told the cabinet that all food sold in Bahrain had to meet public health and safety standards.
The cabinet, said the paper, was reviewing a new draft public health law designed to allow for recent developments in the public health field. The draft was forwarded to the legal committee for study.
The Gulf state has stepped up measures to scrutinize food imports since slamming the door in the face of a shipment of contaminated squid last week.
Two hundred cartons of squid were found to be contaminated with the poisonous element cadmium.
The shipment was confiscated because it contained cadmium levels higher than those accepted in the Gulf.
It was checked as part of a routine inspection of foodstuffs imported into Bahrain – Albawaba.com
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