By Doha News Team
For the third time in three years, popular Turkish takeaway Marmara Istanbul has been closed by Qatari authorities for violating health regulations.
The branch in Fereej Kulaib, near TV intersection, was shut by the Ministry of Municipality and the Environment (MME) for 10 days in mid-August.
In a statement on its website, the ministry said the restaurant was trading in “harmful food contaminated with radioactive (microbes) (parasites) (pesticides)…”
The notice did not specify which of those infractions the restaurant committed.
As of yesterday, Marmara Istanbul remained closed to the public, its doors and windows plastered with stickers from the Health Control section of the ministry.
These state: “This establishment is closed due to violating municipal laws and regulations.”
Food poisoning
This is the third time in as many years the eatery has been shut down by authorities for food violations.
In October 2014, it shut for two months after several customers — including a pregnant woman who gave birth prematurely — reported food poisoning after eating there.
At the time, the MME published photographs of the inside of the restaurant. They showed what appears to be dirty and moldy chopping boards, unclean worktops, BBQ grills blackened with caked-on food deposits and food lying around the surfaces.
A subsequent court case found the restaurant and five of its employees guilty of selling food unfit for human consumption.
In May 2015, a misdemeanor court ordered the restaurant manager and four employees to be jailed, fined and deported, and for the establishment to close for another three months.
The restaurant closed at that time, then appealed the conviction, but lost in a verdict issued in February last year.
It was then closed again for a month to serve out the rest of the sentence.
Other closures
In the past week, another four eateries across town were also shut down by Baladiya officials for breaking hygiene and food laws.
Al Shourook Modern Bakery on Khalifa Street in Markhiya was closed by inspectors on Aug. 22 for two months. “Unhygienic conditions” were cited in documents on the MME’s website.
The store, near TV intersection, currently has 16 closure notices stuck across its glass facade.
And Indian-Chinese cafeterias Bye Bye Garden and Top Cornich, both in the Souq area, also ordered closed for 30 days each on Aug. 17, also for having unhygienic conditions.
Affordable Indian eatery Sky Restaurant in Musheireb was closed for the same reason on the same day for 15 days.
The closures are part of an ongoing campaign to enforce safety and hygiene standards on restaurants, grocery shops and warehouses storing food in the country.
Have you eaten at these outlets? Thoughts?
