Arabiata, ResLife to probe why some fell ill at Carnival event

By Nermin Gerges
@NerminMagdyG

More than 20 students at the New Cairo campus dorms reported suffering from diarrhea and other symptoms of indigestion after eating food at a gathering organized by the Office of Residential Life (ResLife) on Sunday night.

ResLife organizes a welcome gathering for dorm residents every semester; this week’s theme was named ‘The Carnival’.

Well-known Egyptian food chain Arabiata catered the event.

By Monday morning, however, students began reporting symptoms of illness on the residents’ Facebook page.

“I missed all my classes today. Also, I am traveling home to Luxor and this isn’t convenient,” said Mariham Boules, an accounting senior and dorm resident.

“I woke up from the pain… and I couldn’t move… I barely made it to the clinic and 12 hours later I still feel a bit sick,” added Rafik Assal, economics sophomore, who is also a dorm resident.

When approached by The Caravan, Arabiata’s Manager of Quality Control Ahmed Tuhami said that he regretted the “food issue” at The Carnival.

“We apply the highest standards of food safety and quality on two levels; internal and external levels. Internal through ensuring the best quality inside Arabiata itself, while external through an international organization that makes sure of the safety of every procedure we take,” Tuhami said.

“This is all to make sure we got the highest safety measures concerning food quality and thus the safety and health of our clients.”

Arabiata has previously catered ResLife events, but there had never been reports of illness before; on Sunday, they served eight dishes.

Lamis Morsy, a graduate student and residential director, said that ResLife staff contacted Arabiata and are waiting for more accurate reports to decide on further action.

“Some were not really sure whether it was the Arabiata food or not, we will talk to them [Arabiata] again, but we gave them an idea of what happened and we stopped their payment,” Morsy added.

Arabiata says it is investigating the matter.

“We do not want to jump to any conclusions, we are investigating all the process from the beginning till the food was served and we will see what really happened. When we get the results we will share them with the AUC management with full transparency,” Tuhami told The Caravan.

In the meantime, ResLife staff took down the names of all the affected students and went door-to-door to check on them and provide medicine as needed.

Some students were taken to the clinic by the residential advisors.

Nermin Gerges is a dorm resident and one of the students who fell ill on Sunday night