‘Reports of restaurant being shut down in Oman baseless’

Muscat: Reports on social media about a popular eatery in Ruwi being shut down by the Muscat Municipality are baseless, one of the of the restaurant officials said.
“The restaurant was closed for a day only, on January 2, by the municipality over maintenance and hygiene issues. We reopened the next day itself,” he said.
Pictures of seized meat said to be of donkey, which was stored inside the restaurant to be used in the preparation of dishes, were widely circulated on social media.
“Some miscreants loaded fake pictures from fake IDs on social media claiming we were selling donkey meat. If that is the case, would the municipality allow us to reopen our eatery again?” he asked. “We have lodged a case against these miscreants and soon we will get to know who is trying to malign our reputation,” the restaurant owner said.
However, Muscat Municipality officials were reluctant to comment over the issue.
Last week, a leading bakery in Ruwi was also shut down by Muscat Municipality officials.
According to a tweet posted by the Muscat Municipality on its Twitter handle, the bakery was closed down after officials found rats inside the bakery.
Municipality officials in Oman have recently intensified food safety raids at hotels, restaurants and bakeries in Oman.
A few days ago, Ibri Municipality officials were forced to shut down 42 commercial shops and destroyed more than 3,000 kilograms of stale food in 2015.
According to the municipality’s officials, 698 health violation letters were issued throughout the year, as well as 541 warnings were issued to different institutions operating in the wilayat.
More than 40 technical violations were recorded in 2015. However, the violation of health standards was not restricted to Ibri.
Surprise inspections by the Muscat Municipality at 125 restaurants in the course of the last few days in Bausher found that around 53 restaurants were not meeting food safety standards and were violating municipality rules.