Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Municipalities has proposed regulations that prohibit central kitchens serving homes and restaurants from chopping meat, poultry, and fish on wooden boards or knives with wooden handles.

These instruments should be swapped out for boards and knives with handles composed of easily cleaned, food-safe materials like plastic.

The draft mandates that a designated area be approved exclusively for food preparation, ensuring it is restricted to food handling activities.

This space must be visible to customers and separated by transparent glass, with the option to install cameras and screens, as reported by the Saudi newspaper Okaz.

Additionally, the central kitchen must have a specific section for handling raw food, designed to maintain a unidirectional workflow—from receiving and storing to preparing, cooking, packaging, serving, or distributing—minimizing the risk of contamination.

The draft also strictly forbids the reuse of previously served or sold food and requires restaurants and kitchens to partner with licensed food preservation organizations to redistribute surplus food, preventing unnecessary waste.

Cats and dogs