Midtown Responds After Viral Claims of Illegal Practices

One of Belize City’s top restaurants, Midtown, is defending its reputation and brand following a series of social media allegations accusing the business of illegal importation, unsafe food handling and even financial misconduct. But the owners are now responding directly, denying the claims and defending their operations. News Five’s Shane Williams reports.

 

Shane Williams, Reporting

A social media storm has put Midtown Restaurant squarely in the spotlight, and now, the popular eatery is answering back. After a wave of online posts accused the business of illegally importing goods, Midtown’s owner, Jhon Kelat, is setting the record straight. He says the claims are false and insists the restaurant is operating fully within the law. Kelat isn’t speaking in general terms. He says he has the permits in hand to prove it and is addressing the allegations point by point as public scrutiny intensifies.

 

Jhon Kelat, Owner, Midtown Restaurant

“That is all false accusations, as we show you guys we have all the permits and all the legal documents. We can bring those goods in the country, all Customs entrants and everything. Of course, those persons are which is the delivery persons, unloading, loading and delivering goods, they don’t have any link or access to those documents. Only we have access to those documents. So that is totally false and targeting our company, which is we are not happy to hear on social media.”

 

There are also accusations about spoiled or improperly stored meat being used or handled by the business. Kelat rejects those claims, insisting the establishment follows all required health inspections and standards, and says customers have consistently received quality products. In fact, they have even preemptively called in health inspectors since the accusations surfaced.

 

Jhon Kelat

“Actually that video is captured for our inner inspection because we do every week spraying for pest control. Which is that after restaurant close, night time that spraying is doing. Following morning, one of our employees come in inside, inspect the area and see in which corner needs to be more monitored and keep clean. So that is actually helping us to educate our staff and show them what they can do better. However, unfortunately, this person keep that video in his cellphone and publish it and target our business. And if anybody see that video, they can see that all the insects are dead on the ground and this is not operational time. This is cleaning time after the spraying pest control. So all businesses are doing basically the same.”

 

Online posts further suggest that products may have been stored in unregulated locations. But Midtown says the images being circulated are misleading, claiming they were selectively presented and tied to false narratives. One image shows what is being portrayed as spoiled meat.

 

Jhon Kelat

“Actually that is meat is already precooked and seasoned with the mango sauce and seasoning, which is the colour looks like that and this is frozen goods. So when you open this you cook and you serve it to your customers, completely cook and serve it to your customers. Those are cooked products, of course the colour is going to look like this. If anybody go on the internet and search the brand, they are going to find the same package in our suppliers webpage is showing mango colour around the ribs and have the same colour. That’s not spoiled. It’s actually the original colour of the product.”

 

The company also suggests the claims may be coming from disgruntled former employees.

 

Jhon Kelat

“Those all belongs to ex employee which had work permit in our company. He breached our agreement and went to work with another competitor company, which we don’t really appreciate and contact the Labour Department and other government department and cancelled his work permit. So he can’t work nowhere right now. That’s why these allegations have started. So he actually just doing this for a big lie campaign. And the page is without contacting with us, without like how you guys are sitting with us and doing interviews wanting to see our documents, that page is very unprofessional.”

 

Midtown has shown it is willing to provide documentation to authorities and legitimate media outlets and is considering legal action against those responsible for spreading what it calls false information. These allegations have caused an emotional toll on employees who play a part in building the establishment’s stellar reputation. Shane Williams for News Five.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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