D'Souza deaths not caused by food, Dubai officials say

Dubai inspectors say food at the Lotus Garden Chinese restaurant was not to blame for the deaths of Nathan and Chelsea D'Souza.

DUBAI // The head of Dubai Municipality's food inspection section today said the deaths of two children in 2009 were not the result of food poisoning, despite a court ruling yesterday that held the chef, restaurant owner and a doctor accountable.

Ahmed Abdulrehman al Ali today said the tests that his unit performed showed no signs of food poisoning. He was speaking on the sidelines of the sixth Annual Dubai International Food Safety Conference, organised by the Municipality.

"By taking samples of the meal and the shared food with other family members, results did not show food poisoning. Neither did the lab or blood tests," said Mr Al Ali.

Another Municipality official today also stressed that all efforts were made to find out whether the cause of death in fact came from the food the children ate.

"This is a very sad case and we heavily investigated the samples from the leftover food the kids ate, but found no amount of bacteria enough to cause death," said the official, who did not wish to be named. "As the Municipality, we never said this was a food poisoning case. Investigation does not mean confirmation. The environment and food was cleared from our side. It was a suspected case based on assumption."

Yesterday in court, T?R, 26, from Nepal, and his Filipino supervisor E?S, 34, the Lotus Garden Chinese restaurant where they worked, and E?T, 47, an Iraqi doctor at New Medical Centre Specialty Hospital (NMC), were each fined Dh10,000 in connection with the deaths.

They were also ordered to collectively pay Dh200,000 in diyaa, or blood money.
Nathan D'Souza, five, and his sister Chelsea, eight, died after eating a takeaway meal from the restaurant in Al Qusais in June 2009.
The Dubai Court of Misdemeanours found that the two restaurant staff had breached hygiene standards in the way they stored food, which allowed bacteria to grow and eventually made the children ill. It also found that the doctor was negligent in her treatment of them.

Today's assertions by Dubai food inspectors raised questions about the verdicts.

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