By Xinhua
Abu Dhabi : The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has established a health and safety committee on general items to deal with product safety, local newspaper Gulf News reported Friday.
The new committee, which comprises officials from the Health Ministry and General Secretariat of Municipalities, has the authority to recall and issue health warnings on general items similar to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the ministry's Assistant Under Secretary Humaid Al Shamsi was quoted as saying.
General items such as toiletries and lunch boxes are neither food, which is under the purview of municipalities, nor pharmaceutical drugs, which are under the ministry.
"If the issue is something medical, the authority to recall or issue health warning will be the Health Ministry. If it deals with general items, then the response will be from the committee's side," Al Shamsi said.
There will be strong coordination between the ministry and municipality officials to fill up jurisdictional loopholes in dealing with the health and safety of general products available at stores, he added.