The Egyptian national football team did not participate in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
However, some Egyptians had a clear imprint on the tournament away from the pitch.
A 30-year-old Egyptian vet represented Egypt in the cup by participating as part of the team of inspectors responsible for food safety during the top football event.
Dr Mai Tag el-Dien, who hails from the Nile Delta Governorate of Qaluibia, had always dreamed of taking her career to an international level.
She did this by acting as a food safety consultant during the World Cup in Qatar.
“It never crossed my mind that the tournament will be my gateway into the realization of my dream,” Tag el-Dien told the Egyptian Mail in an interview.
Tag el-Dien’s passion for food safety started when she enrolled in the Veterinary Medicine College several years ago.
Her attachment to this field increased when she conducted research in it.
A short time before the tournament, Tag el-Dien read an online announcement by the company responsible for food safety in the competition, in which it declared its need for qualified vets to be part of its team during the event.
She brooked no delay in applying and soon afterwards a complicated selection process started, one that included a large number of interviews and tests.
“I was finally selected to be part of the team of food safety inspectors,” Tag el-Dien said.
The team contained vets from ten different countries. Tag el-Dien was the only Egyptian in it.
She and her colleagues were responsible for ensuring that the food served the teams participating in the tournament and their fans was good.
This included the food served during the tournament everywhere in Qatar, including at hotels and the Gulf country’s restaurants, from the smallest to the largest and from the most famous to the least known.
She took samples, wrote reports and visited food factories and hotels.
Tag el-Dien also ensured that the food served the players during training before and after the matches was good.
She and her team inspected food at every stage, especially before it was served inside the food factories and hotel kitchens.
She also monitored all food preparation stages, including storage, and cooking.
Tag el-Dien took the chance of meeting this large number of people from different countries to tell them about Egypt.
“I hope all these people will visit Egypt one day in the future,” she said.
Tag el-Dien had never participated in an event that large, even as she participated in a number of other international events.
She adjudicated a competition organized by the United Nations. She also gave lectures in the United Arab Emirates.
“Over 10,000 trainees from Egypt and other Arab countries attended these lectures,” Tag el-Dien said.
Her achievements include the launch of a project for raising awareness about food safety.
Tag el-Dien dreams of spreading the word around Egypt about this safety.
The food safety culture, she said, is necessary if our food will be safe all throughout its journey, from production to consumption.
Tag el-Diencounted some of the200 diseases that can be caused by unsafe food.
According to her, food poisoning causes problems to hundreds of millions of people every year, while around 420,000 people die from this poisoning annually.
“This is why the safety of food should be a top priority for every one of us,” Tag el-Dien said.
