Person In Charge (PIC): Role And Importance

Food safety and hygiene is a crucial concern that governments around the world take very seriously. The smallest infractions of the food code and regulations are likely to be punished by severe fines, while the regulations also make room for closing the establishment down if it falls far short the required standards.

Although part of the seriousness with which this aspect is dealt with has to do with the mass food supply and how it affects the population at large, the food code is also geared toward preventing the outbreak of food-related conditions or diseases.

There are several treatment standards that if ignored, affect the safety of the food being prepared, from sourcing, all the way to storage. Most food has a tendency to go bad even when refrigerated, within the span of a week. As such, supervisory strictness and apt compliance measures are extremely crucial.

PIC Responsibilities

One of the ways the Dubai municipality has dealt with the challenge of ensuring food safety across the thousands of services that prepare and serve it, is by creating the post of the person in charge (PIC).

The PIC is someone who performs duty during the operation hours of a particular establishment, thereby exercising the authority to oversee food safety.

According to the rules and standards set forth by the city authorities, this job entails:

• Carrying out inspections at the site to oversee day-to-day operations to ensure that the relevant safety practices are being implemented.
• Carrying out the required follow-up after inspections by the food control department, and taking the necessary steps from then on.
• Overseeing the work and processes taking place at the hands of the employees and making sure these comply with the protocols and standards meant for dealing especially with high-risk food items.
• Ensuring that employees receive the adequate training in storage, handling, cleaning and personal conduct before they work at the establishment in question.

Tasks

Person In Charge Training in UAE prepares these officials for a wide range of the specified and particular daily food safety assurance tasks as well. These include:

• Dismissing employees that are sick, and making sure they have recovered before they return to work
• Overseeing the daily personal hygiene practices such as hand washing, and the separation of hand washing and food washing sinks
• Ensuring the sanitization of the food utensils and equipment
• Verify and oversee the complaints regarding the food served.