Jordan: Child dead and 700 others poisoned by deadly shwarma in Amman
It all started when a local food stand owner in Amman offered shwarma for the extremely low price of less than NIS 6 per serving.
By TOBIAS SIEGALA worker prepares a traditional sweet "Konafa" at a shop, after the government eased the restrictions on movement aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Amman, Jordan April 29, 2020.(photo credit: MUHAMMAD HAMED / REUTERS)
A 5-year-old child died and 700 other Jordanians were admitted to the hospital on Wednesday after eating rotten shwarma at a food stand in Jordan's capital Amman, according to a report by Yisrael Hayom. The Jordanian Health Ministry announced on Tuesday that 100 people were admitted to the hospital due to the mass food poisoning, but on Wednesday updated the number to a shocking 700 people affected by the incident and requiring medical treatment.According to reports in Jordanian media, the deputy health minister addressed the unusual incident, saying that most of the people who were hospitalized were released after their stomachs were pumped and they had received sufficient fluids.It all started when a local food stand owner in Amman offered shwarma for the extremely low price of less than NIS 6 per serving. What customers didn't know though, was that due to the severe heat wave in the country, the refrigerator that was storing the meat stopped working, leaving the meat to slowly rot until it became unsafe for consumption.Shwarma is a popular dish in Middle Eastern cuisine. It consists of meat, usually lamb or chicken, cut into thin slices. It's fast food version, sold in many street stalls in Jordan as well as in Israel, comes wrapped inside of a kind of flatbread called 'laffa' in Arabic and in Hebrew.Many people around the world rely on cheap street food for their daily meals, and affordable food is usually a good thing. But perhaps people should be more careful when offered a deal that sounds too good to be true.
