Food Safety

Its good to ask....best to be safe than sorry

But food hygiene is generally not a problem (as long as you purchase from a decent eatery)

You will be consuming large quantity of bottled water as well. (its hot dry heat in Riyadh at present)

Food safety in Riyadh a simple advice is until u get used to the local delicacies slowly, stick to things you know in the beginning, stick to the better joints that are fairly bigger and crowded. That kinda gives justification for the quality and the repute of the place.

Happy chomping!

Red Goblin's right, stick to what you know to start off with, you can't drink tap water but bottled is available everywhere.
We've been here a year and even the kids haven't had any problems so you should be fine even in the local Arab eateries.

onlyfornow wrote:

I'll be in Riyadh a week from today and I'm an American with our typical weak super sanitary stomachs.  Is food safety an issue in Riyadh at all?  Can I eat out freely? Should I avoid uncooked vegetables in restaurants or anything like that?  I have been reading a lot about Riyadh, and I'm guessing by the fact that I never see this topic mentioned, that this isn't much an issue, but figured it can't hurt to ask.

Hei there, I am from Cape Town, South Africa & I've only been here for 2 months now. I have had no issues with food here. A lot of the restaurant chains found in the U.S are here (Pizza Hut, Burger King, Mc Donalds, KFC, Apple Bees, Planet Hollywood ect ect).

In the supermarkets, you'll find a lot of American products too, so food shouldn't be a problem at all.

I haven't attempted to drink tap water here, only bottled. My husband & his family don't either (& they're Saudi) so I take my que (spelling) from them.

This blog is great for info, so just ask away. Someone will be able to answer all your questions...

onlyfornow wrote:

I'll be in Riyadh a week from today and I'm an American with our typical weak super sanitary stomachs.  Is food safety an issue in Riyadh at all?  Can I eat out freely? Should I avoid uncooked vegetables in restaurants or anything like that?  I have been reading a lot about Riyadh, and I'm guessing by the fact that I never see this topic mentioned, that this isn't much an issue, but figured it can't hurt to ask.

my own experience :
use water from : nestle or al manhal , as those tends to have lower sodium level than the rest
if you want a healthy food : steak house offers an oppen salade bouffé or if u want you can have koudou launch chiken that comes with salad and grilled chiken , there are places like "fiteness world" that have healthy food and offers a daily delivery per subscription , but i didn't like what they offered and the price wasn't worth

I make all my foods at home. I spend a good 1 hour cooking for all my meals everyday before I go work. The food outside just looks so unhealthy, All my fellow teachers have gone form extremely skinny to morbidly obese.
Plus I don't think they have the same food hygiene as they do in the west.

Pang wrote:

I make all my foods at home. I spend a good 1 hour cooking for all my meals everyday before I go work. The food outside just looks so unhealthy, All my fellow teachers have gone form extremely skinny to morbidly obese.
Plus I don't think they have the same food hygiene as they do in the west.

i vouch that , compared to lebanon ,the amount of food and meat u have per month is the same here and ú even loose weight (there are rarely a fat lebanese), but here ,with less amount of meat,and even with low fat food and 2500 Kcal per day i still find it hard to loose weight