More than half of Sarah’s restaurants fail basic food hygiene inspections because of out of date food and moldy kitchens.  The head of internal inspection department for Sharjah Municipality said that out of 1,588 restaurants, only 223 met minimum requirements.  The remaining 891 restaurants were issued written warnings and 474 were closed temporarily until required improvements are made.

Restaurants that failed inspection were cited for issues including using food that had passed its use-by date, staff failure to observe appropriate food safety procedures, flaking paint falling on food, and black moldy kitchen surfaces. Inspections were initiated by Sharjah Municipality to end the practice, by shops, of turning off refrigerators at night in order to save power.  This is a frequent practice, especially in the summer, and a common cause of food poisoning.