Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the food safety standards and trends in Dubai food truck establishments and determine the top five food safety violations associated with these trucks.
Methods: Various food trucks in different regions of Dubai were analyzed. Some were permanent establishments and others were functional during events. Parameters were set based on the new inspection system of Dubai municipality. As calculated, A=95+, B=80+, C=70+, and D=60. Scores were based on the number of critical, major, and general violations. A survey using the Dubai municipality food code was prepared and inspections were carried out in temporary and permanently established food trucks across Dubai. The survey results (n=50) were analyzed using ANOVA and plotted based on the samples collected.
Results: The results indicate that there is a difference (P-value) in the number of violations and compliance to food safety between the trucks functional during events and the permanently established trucks. The event based trucks are less compliant to food safety standards than the permeant food trucks and the mean of the violations are 0.56 and 0.68, respectively, with the P<0.05 significance. Also the variances of grades were consistently found to be B grades in the permanent trucks, whereas temporary event-based trucks received scores that varied from B to D.