Dubai, August 25: Although families like to celebrate Iftar at restaurants, the recent cases of fatal food poisoning of children have made parents a bit more cautious about dining out, taking care that the places they go to are safe and clean.
Astuty Djuhais Indra, an Indonesian businesswoman with two kids, told Khaleej Times that her son, Muhammad Excel Muslim, 10, a classmate of one of those kids who died of food poisoning, has developed a phobia for restaurants and dreads going even to his favourite outlet.
She said that food poisoning cases will not deter her family from going to a restaurant for Iftar. “We just have to be cautious all the time over the kind of food and services offered and what kind of restaurants we visit,” she said.
An Indonesian-Iranian Syarifah Al Habsyi, 33, whose family has been living in UAE for six years, said she is not scared to take her family for Iftar in Dubai’s restaurants because food poisoning only happens rarely.
“I think that in this country, the government takes action on restaurants that do not maintain proper hygiene standards.”
She said that her family prefers to have Iftar at home as they love to have their favourite Indonesian food like ox tail, “laksa” chicken soup and sweets. “But, we still go to restaurants becaus my eldest son Sahmi, 9, is already fasting. If he asks that we break the fast for Iftar outside, we will oblige. The reason we do this is to motivate him to complete the one month of fasting.
Eman Surahman, 42, working with the Bin Ladin Group of Companies, said he breaks fast at home with his wife Syukria, 34, and three daughters, Shyarah, 12, Sayyedah, 10, and Shafira, 4.
“My wife loves cooking a lot so we prefer to have Iftar at home. Besides, my daughters do not like to go out because of the hot weather. We, however, do go to restaurants where we can vouch for the safety as we have been their regular clients.”
The likelihood of food poisoning does not worry him too much. “We are certain that the places we go to are absolutely safe and would take every precaution necessary to safeguard their customer’s health,” he added.
–Agencies