Knowing the status: Gathering baseline data on food safety management across the Abu Dhabi hospitality industry
Purpose – This paper aims to provide an overview of the methods used, and results found, during an in-depth investigation into the status of food safety management systems in eight types of Abu Dhabi businesses. It is the second article in a Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes theme issue presenting a comprehensive government strategy for improving food safety management standards across the hospitality industry. Design/methodology/approach – The research process gathered quantitative and qualitative data from industry visits, surveys, interviews, document analysis, focus groups and stakeholder workshops. Findings – Standards varied across the industry, with distinct characteristics and patterns across the eight groups. Systems were most likely to be found to be in place within hotels. However, there were some issues with validation, documentation and particularly certification. In other sectors, there were lower levels of food safety management with some additional specific challenges. The baseline ...
Developing a government strategy to meet international standards of food safety across the hospitality industry
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify international best practice regarding food safety management across the food chain, with particular reference to hospitality businesses. It looks at the role of government strategy in the pursuit of a flexible approach that can be adapted and adopted by a diverse range of businesses. It is the first article in a Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes theme issue, presenting a comprehensive government strategy for improving food safety management standards across the hospitality industry. Design/methodology/approach – A summary of key literature is presented alongside an in-depth analysis of international guidance for governments attempting to promote the uptake of hazard analysis critical control point-based food safety management systems. It is set within the context of recent Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority initiatives. Findings – The management of food safety across all sectors of the food industry and prevention of food-borne diseases represent a m...
Hydrogen-rich gas production from biomass air and oxygen/steam gasification in a downdraft gasifier
Biomass gasification is an important method to obtain renewable hydrogen. However, this technology still stagnates in a laboratory scale because of its high-energy consumption. In order to get maximum hydrogen yield and decrease energy consumption, this study applies a self-heated downdraft gasifier as the reactor and uses char as the catalyst to study the characteristics of hydrogen production from biomass gasification. Air and oxygen/steam are utilized as the gasifying agents. The experimental results indicate that compared to biomass air gasification, biomass oxygen/steam gasification improves hydrogen yield depending on the volume of downdraft gasifier, and also nearly doubles the heating value of fuel gas. The maximum lower heating value of fuel gas reaches 11.11MJ/Nm3 for biomass oxygen/steam gasification. Over the ranges of operating conditions examined, the maximum hydrogen yield reaches 45.16gH2/kg biomass. For biomass oxygen/steam gasification, the content of H2 and CO reaches 63.27–72.56%, while the content of H2 and CO gets to 52.19–63.31% for biomass air gasification. The ratio of H2/CO for biomass oxygen/steam gasification reaches 0.70–0.90, which is lower than that of biomass air gasification, 1.06–1.27. The experimental and comparison results prove that biomass oxygen/steam gasification in a downdraft gasifier is an effective, relatively low energy consumption technology for hydrogen-rich gas production.