An American prison inmate sued a local food packager after biting into a human fingertip in one of its packaged vegetarian meals. His lawyer demanded at least $75,000 in damages from the food company saying his client bit into the fingertip lost by one of the company’s workers.

Here in Saudi Arabia, one Arabic newspaper recently published a similar story involving two men. While preparing to eat a meal at a local restaurant, one of the men discovered a decaying tooth in his plate. The relevant authorities were immediately notified and an investigation was launched to know how the tooth found its way to the meal.

The disturbing thing here is that although several days have passed since the incident was reported, the authorities were still struggling to determine whose tooth caused this problem.

I can imagine inspection teams visiting every restaurant and kiosk selling food in the city and forcing their workers to open wide their mouths to check whether any of them have lost a tooth at the time of the incident. I can also imagine the relevant authorities seeking the help of dental specialists and the advanced laboratory equipment to help identify the reckless and inconsiderate restaurant worker who left his mouth open while preparing the meal for the unfortunate clients. Had that worker kept his mouth tightly shut, his tooth would not have slipped into the dish.

A day seldom passes without accidents involving restaurant-goers taken to hospital after eating contaminated food, or an insect or strange body part found in a sandwich or a bottle of soft-drink. A day seldom passes without the press reporting the discovery of expired food material that was about to find its way to people’s stomachs.

Every time an incident threatening people’s health strikes, all that the relevant consumer protection bodies do is issue a statement promising to launch an investigation and take action against the violators. Sometimes, shops are shut down as a punishment but violations continue.

The practice is not just confined to foodstuff but has extended to cover medicines as well. Cases involving expired drugs and even vaccines are reported from time to time. The situation extends to fake doctors who claim to cure every kind of illness using herbal drugs mixed with toxic material.

We need to have a special body whose main task would be to address financial claims filed by victims of food poisoning and bad medicines to compensate them for the physical and psychological damage they suffer.