Muscat: Twenty Omanis took ill after consuming contaminated food at a restaurant in Saham province on Sunday evening.
Some of the victims of the food poisoning incident are still undergoing medical treatment at Sohar hospital in the northern coastal city, according to a hospital official. He added that some of them were discharged on Monday.
The restaurant continues to operate despite the incident.
An official at the Saham Municipality declined to give further details about the incident.
“We took samples from the food the victims consumed for laboratory test in Muscat,” he told Gulf News.
Despite continuous crackdowns by the Omani authorities to ensure food safety and public hygiene, food poisoning cases are not uncommon.
A massive quantity of foodstuff found to be contaminated, improperly labelled and not fit for consumption was confiscated early in 2015.
The new consumer act is expected to crack down on those restaurants that flout the rules as it has more teeth that includes heftier fines and jail-terms.
In August 2014, forty nationals fell sick after reportedly consuming contaminated food at a restaurant in Ibri province.
Omani authorities later closed the restaurant and jailed the staff and fined them.
