Oman's commerce ministry to set standard for dried dates

Published 22 May,2021 via Muscat Daily - The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion (MoCIIP) has completed the preparation to set an Omani standard specification for dried dates.

The Omani standard specification draft project for packaged and unpacked dried dates aims at identifying the requirements for manufacturing, packaging and preserving process of dried dates for human consumption.

‘This standard specification is not concerned with dried dates used as animal fodder,’ the ministry stated.

Safia bint Said al Hashemi, technician of food products specifications in the Directorate General for Standards and Metrology, said that the setting of an Omani standard specification for the dried dates comes within the plan of the directorate in cooperation with the Palm Research Centre at the Ministry of Agricultural, Fisheries and Water Resources, the Industrial Innovation Centre and all other relevant authorities, in order to preserve the date industry as an inherited legacy across generations.

She added that the dried dates (busoor) are prepared after being boiled in water or treated with hot steam, where it becomes soft and sweet in taste.

She pointed out that the Omani standard specification project specified the general requirements for dried dates, which include that they are produced from dates of the same variety, in a suitable stage of maturity, free from live insects, free of visible moulds, free of contamination of pathogenic microorganisms, and must have the same distinctive taste characteristic of the variety and are identical in colour, shape and size.

The draft standard has classified the dried dates into three grades - excellent, first and second degrees.

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