Food outlets in Saudi Arabia are free to pick the names they want for their products, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs said, denying claims it had imposed a ban on “military” branding of food items.

“dynamite prawns”, “missile shawarma” and “tank chickens” are some of the names of dishes and sandwiches appearing on the menus of restaurants and food outlets across Saudi Arabia in a bid to seek attention of customers and ensure a high level of publicity.

Military names are usually favoured over clever puns or play of words.

Reports alleged that the ministry was disturbed by the tendency to associate military names with food and wanted the restaurants to rename their dishes and sandwiches.

However, the ministry rejected the claims as “baseless and lacking credibility.”

“Restaurants and food outlets have the legitimate right to choose names for their dishes and sandwiches without referring to the municipality,” the spokesperson for the municipality Hamad Al Omar said, quoted by Saudi daily Okaz on Sunday. “The only thing that the ministry may oppose is when the name is not appropriate. In such cases, the regulatory measures are applied. They start with a warning and a request to change the name of the dish or the sandwich in the menu

source : gulfnews