MAKKAH, July 23 (INP): The Ministry of Hajj and Umrah has said it detected violations with regard to the quality of pre-prepared meals served to the Hajj pilgrims, vowing to take punitive measures against those involved. “The ministry will slap prescribed penalties on companies and establishments that are found to have committed violations once the ongoing investigation procedures are over,” the ministry said in a statement.

According to the report of Saudi Gazette that the ministry revealed that it detected violations during the inspection rounds carried out by the officials of the departments concerned with the services provided by companies and establishments. They inspected the quality and other requirements of the meals served by these companies and establishments.

According to the ministry statement, the supplied meals did not meet the stipulated requirements while preparing and serving. Some of these erring firms resorted to concluding subcontracts with meal service providers of lower quality in violation of the contractual obligations made with the authorities.

The ministry stressed that the prescribed penalties will be imposed after completing the necessary investigation procedures in this regard, against those companies and establishments regarding the violations committed.

The supervisory teams of the Makkah Mayoralty carried out 274 inspection tours at the holy sites to verify the application of precautionary measures by the catering providers at the pilgrims’ camps as well as to monitor the quality of pre-prepared meals and the mechanism of their preparation and distribution.

The inspections comprised 159 rounds in Mina, 63 in Arafat, and 52 in Muzdalifah. The tours resulted in the confiscation and destruction of 861 meals and 923 packages of salads due to poor standard of storage, and 166 food samples were collected from the pilgrims’ meals for analysis in the Food Safety Laboratory to verify whether their quality and safety are compliant with the specifications and standards approved by the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing.

Also, the officials at the mayoralty checked more than 3,000 workers to verify the health certificates of workers and those involved in serving meals.