A criminal investigation has been launched in Bratsk, a city in Russia's Irkutsk region near the Mongolian border, after 35 people complained that they felt unwell after eating shawarma, 11 of them were hospitalized, authorities said.
Igor Kobzev, the regional governor, said on his Telegram channel on Wednesday that 11 people, including five children, were hospitalized in Bratsk after eating in a cafe called "I Want Shawarma."
Shawarma is a popular Middle Eastern dish and street food consisting of meat sliced thinly and stacked in a cone-like shape. According to the Global Food Consumers' Forum, shawarma poisoning is not uncommon as "unscrupulous shawarma producers, in pursuit of profit, often cook from stale products or neglect sanitary standards."
The governor wrote on his Telegram channel that the remaining people who said they felt unwell are receiving outpatient treatment. "Doctors provide all the necessary assistance in full."
He said in an earlier post that 10 people were hospitalized after eating the dish.
"Mass poisoning in Bratsk. 10 people were hospitalized after visiting a cafe. Five of them are children, they are now in the Bratsk Children's Clinical Hospital. Five adults are being treated in the infectious diseases department of hospital No. 5. The number of people in need of medical care is being specified," the governor continued.
Emergency services first received a call on Tuesday morning from a person who had visited the affected cafe. Later that day, more than a dozen calls were made to the city's healthcare services. All individuals visited the same cafe.
"A criminal case has been initiated on the grounds of a crime under part 1 of article 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (production, storage, sale of products that do not meet safety requirements)," Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti cited a report as saying.
Russia's Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing, which is responsible for the supervision of areas such as food safety and hygiene standards in the country, is looking into the incident alongside police officers.
Samples were taken from foodstuffs and kitchen appliances, and investigators also took grill ovens, and staff documentation. All employees were sent for bacteriological examination, according to RIA Novosti.
In May 2022, in southern India, a 16-year-old girl died and 18 others fell ill from suspected food poisoning after eating shawarma from a snack bar in Kerala.
Two years earlier, in Jordan, more than 800 people were affected by a food-poisoning outbreak linked to reduced-price shawarma.
Uncommon Knowledge
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About the writer
Isabel van Brugen is a Newsweek Reporter based in Kuala Lumpur. Her focus is reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war. Isabel ... Read more
