MADINAH: Residents of the holy city of Madinah have been left shocked and saddened to hear about the recent death of three young Pakistani children who, according to their father, died after suffering food poisoning.
Although the Health Affairs Department dispute this, saying the children were poisoned by insecticide sprayed in their home, the issue of food poisoning remains a contentious one across the Kingdom.
Earlier this month, 17 students suffered food poisoning after eating at a popular restaurant in Khamis Mushayt. The students were from Riyadh and had traveled to the region as part of a summer program, which takes students on trips across the Kingdom during the summer.
After the incident, Health Affairs Department in Asir inspected the restaurant and found some of the food unsuitable for human consumption.
Food poisoning is a problem that becomes all too common during the summer each year. Expired food often finds its way to customers through restaurants, which fail to meet health and safety regulations. Most people attribute this to health officials' negligence who fail to properly check up on eateries.
"Quba Municipality executes a plan every year to monitor restaurants and places where food is stored. The municipality also makes sure employees have health certificates to work in restaurants," said Hamza Seebeh, manager of Quba Municipality.
"Violators are fined and even shut down. If there is a case of food poisoning, then an emergency committee, comprising several government departments, is formed. The place is shut down and an investigation is launched," he said. He added that samples of food from the eatery in question is then taken for test and a report is submitted to the committee to determine an appropriate punishment.
Ahmad Barbushi, acting general supervisor of the Medical Information Department in Madinah, said the department examines people who have been food-poisoned and that a report is then sent to the appropriate authorities. "Decisions on these issues are made by the municipality," he said.
Abdul Rahman Al-Ahmadi, an STC employee, said cases of food poisoning would continue to happen unless more inspections are carried out and stricter measures taken. "Now when a fine is imposed, it is equivalent to a restaurant's one-day profit or less than that - this is far too little. Since these restaurants are playing with people's lives, fines should be severe," he said.
"If someone dies, the errant restaurant should be forced to pay blood money. Such restaurants should be closed indefinitely and the owner should never be issued a license again."
Al-Ahmadi said municipalities should carry out regular spot checks and that there is a need to assign a special team to secretly monitor them and compile reports detailing how well they work.
Ali Al-Juhani, spokesman at Al-Aziziya Police Station in Madinah, said that there is no difference between restaurants that sell rotten food and terrorists as "they all kill people."
"If we look at neighboring countries in the Gulf, we hardly see them having the same problems that we have. This is in spite of the same hot weather," he said. "Such restaurants should be exposed and their owners' photographs should be published in the press. We shouldn't hide their identities."
