The series of inspections carried out by the Jeddah Municipality of a number of well-known local and international food outlets in the city are alarming. Most of these inspections ended up with a load of comments and temporary closures of a number of those outlets.
Along with a lot of the city’s residents, I feel like I have been cheated. We entrusted these places with our food, our health but behind the scenes, they breached our trust. It is a problem when something that is related to people’s health and well-being is treated as a business, when profits and loss calculation becomes the name of the game.
Back in the days, eating in a restaurant was almost unheard of. Unless you prepared it with your own hands, it was not easy to trust somebody else. It is a sign of generosity to cook for your guests, instead of ordering food from outside like most of us do these days. Not so long ago, neighbors and friends used to exchanging recipes and dishes like we exchange WhatsApp messages these days. Men and women were known to find their way around the kitchen. Nowadays, most of us belonging to the younger generation even have to struggle to make an omelet.
Part of the blame goes on the change in lifestyle that has crept into our daily routines. Both men and women stay late in the office on a daily basis, so the easiest way to feed the family becomes buying food on the way home.
Deep fried, saturated with fats and salt, and full of carbohydrates food became our main source of nutrition. No wonder obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and many heart problems are on the rise in the Kingdom.
The recent action against food outlets is but a wake-up call for us all to re-evaluate our dietary habits. What kind of food do we consume? And how do we get it? Do fruits, vegetables, and healthy food choices find their way to our tables? Or is it all reserved for fatty and greasy foods? We owe it to ourselves, and our families to think about it earnestly.
This is not to deny the great service a lot of decent restaurants are doing to the society. As there are restaurants who just do not care about basics of hygiene or from where they are getting their materials, there are those who care and make sure whatever they are producing is actually suitable for human consumption.
At the same time, and as we salute the Jeddah Municipality for its efforts in making this wake-up call, it is also legitimate to ask, where were you all this time? Coming up with such many observations at once means that there had been no inspections, or weaker ones if you want, in the near past, making the municipality an equal accomplice in carrying the burden of responsibility in this chaotic scene.
Moreover, it is a good opportunity to encourage a number of local initiatives, in Yanbu and in different cities in the south of the Kingdom that started promoting organic methodologies in producing farm products. And to thank the restaurants that are supporting local farms and using healthier materials in their kitchens. Treating one’s body as a temple knowing exactly what goes inside, is not a bad metaphor, maybe you should give it a thought.
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@smaldosa
