Guest worker caught selling kebab made out of discarded chicken leftovers

AMMAN — Zarqa Municipality caught a guest worker selling kebab sandwiches made out of chicken skin and leftovers on Monday, the city’s mayor said on Tuesday. 

Zarqa Mayor Emad Momani said municipality teams monitored the man and managed to catch him in the act.

Momani told the Jordan News Agency, Petra, that the elderly migrant confessed to selling some 30 sandwiches a day for JD0.50 each. 

Health inspectors discovered that he was collecting the leftovers from dumpsters and fresh meat stores in Zarqa, some 22km east of Amman.

He would then grind the leftovers and skins to make kebab, Petra reported.

The municipality destroyed the leftovers found at the man’s house and placed him under constant surveillance.

“This is not the first time the municipality has successfully stopped people from selling unhealthy products. During the past months, we managed to seize expired candy, traditional sweets and other food items from stores and shopping centres in the governorate,” Momani told The Jordan Times over the phone.

He noted that people’s financial difficulties encourage them buy food from such vendors. 

“Many of Zarqa’s residents are paid low salaries. The municipality works hard to provide job opportunities for them,” the mayor added. 

Momani said the unstable financial situation has also pushed some people to resort to selling unhealthy products to make money.

Also on Tuesday, Zarqa’s health department seized and destroyed 9,000 cans of fava beans found unfit for human consumption, Petra reported.

The cans, which contained dead insects, were found at a food warehouse.

In addition, the department’s teams confiscated around 7,000 bottles labelled as Zamzam water from Saudi Arabia, but actually contained water from Jordan, Petra reported.

The water was found to be contaminated and the owner of the warehouse where the bottles were stored was referred to court.