The awarding of the “Clean & Safe” seal, already available for tourist accommodations and travel agencies, will be extended to catering establishments that may require it from today, Lusa said. State Secretary for Commerce.

Completely free, voluntary and automatically issued on the spot, the “Clean & Safe” seal visually records the commitment of operators to the guidelines of the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) for the reopening of catering establishments following of closure due to covid-19.

“This is a seal of commitment by the economic operator to comply with the guidelines of the Directorate-General for Health, which were published last Friday and which are specific to the catering sector,” stated the Secretary of State for Commerce, Services and Consumer Protection, João Torres.

The seal is valid for one year and is issued online through the eportugal.gov.pt portal.

According to the Government’s Decommissioning Plan, released on April 30, restaurants and cafes will resume their activity next Monday, the 18th, but with some restrictions in terms of mitigating the spread of the 19-pandemic pandemic.

Stressing that the seal is a guarantee that the economic operator is “committed to the guidelines” of the DGS, João Torres stated that this does not mean that restaurants that do not have this “Clean & Safe” seal “do not comply” with those guidelines.

Likewise, he noted, the seal is not a necessary and sufficient condition for an establishment to be able to open doors and resume its activity from next Monday.

Last week the DGS issued guidelines for the reopening of restaurants and cafes, which should favor the use of terraces and the ‘take-away’ service, encourage prior booking and will have to reduce the maximum capacity, in order to ensure physical distance recommended two meters between people.

DGS guidelines also advise against standing, as well as ‘self-service’ operations, such as ‘buffets’.

The cleaning and disinfection of spaces must respect the guidelines previously issued by DGS.

The seal is an initiative of the Directorate-General for Economic Activities in conjunction with Turismo de Portugal (which launched it for tourism enterprises, tourist entertainment companies and travel agencies) and which also has the collaboration of the Agency for Administrative Modernization.

João Torres referred to the “notable effort” that the country is making together to contain the spread of covid-19, specifying that “confidence is the key word for the resumption of economic activity”, with this stamp “being a contribution for this confidence is further strengthened ”.