JEDDAH - The municipality in Jeddah has shut down the restaurants of seven hotels for various violations, Makkah reported.
The hotels are all five-star.
Jeddah Municipality spokesman Mohammad Al-Bugamy said the municipality had to close down these restaurants as they had multiple violations.
He said: “The municipality witnessed a number of health and food regulations violations and the owners' excuses were invalid and unacceptable.
“The owners claimed their staff members were untrained and unaware of the municipality's regulations.”
He added the municipality has training centers for staff and employees. “The restaurants could have come to us to train their staff if they truly cared.
“They must be penalized for their violations.
“The municipality has announced the names of the restaurants and their violations on social media.
“The general public has the right to know and protect their health.
“Some of the restaurant's international representatives had to come to look into the matter and liaise with the municipality.”
He also said that these five-star restaurants committed grave violations. “The restaurant staff would throw garbage in the sewer and leave it open instead of throwing garbage where it should be thrown.
“The meat in their kitchen had a stench and the kitchen staff used expired food ingredients in preparing the food.”
The municipality also penalized a famous and new hotel restaurant for hiring ill staff and cleaning the kitchen using dirty equipment. “There was a hotel with VIP suites only.
“Its restaurant offered the buffet for more than SR150,000 a day. “We had to shut down the restaurant for various violations.”
