Halloween howler: kids handed expired sweets

DUBAI Halloween sweet treats turned sour for a group of children doing the trick-or-treat rounds in Bur Dubai on October 31 after some callous residents handed them expired chocolates, XPRESS has learnt.

The shocking revelation came when the children, aged between five and 12 years, from a cluster of buildings in the Mankhool area set out to collect candies from neighbourhood homes as is customary amongst youngsters during Halloween.

One alert parent who wanted to check her child’s booty was aghast to find that the sweets collected included many expired chocolates.

“This mother immediately alerted other mums who fortunately were part of a WhatsApp group. To their shock, they discovered that many of their children’s collections also included expired stuff. How could anyone be so irresponsible as to give out stale food?” asked the mother of an 10-year-old girl.

As the mums began to exchange notes, there were more surprises – milk chocolates of different varieties, candy pops and biscuits that had expired days, months, even years earlier.

One child, for instance, received a biscuit packet that had expired in February 2014. The worst case was that of a packet of sugar-coated chocolates whose expiry date on the label clearly read “04/08/2013”. The manufacturing date was “06/08/2012”.

“That’s more than two years old. Imagine giving an innocent child something as old as that? The stale chocolates could have been dangerous had they been consumed. Thank God we spotted it in time,” said one mother.

“There were some sweets that were disfigured or had worn out wrappings. You could tell from their look that they were old. It was almost as if their donors wanted to clear the junk from their homes,” said the mum of a eight-year-old.

She said it is imperative that parents educate their children on the matter. “They should not accept anything blindly. They should be taught to check the labels and make sure they are safe before consuming anything.”

Once bitten twice shy, another parent said she would not let her son go to strangers’ houses from next year. “It is better that way. I am not going to take the risk again.”

Trick-or-treat is a Halloween custom where children in scary costumes go from house to house on the evening of October 31 asking for sweets with the phrase “trick or treat”. The “trick” is a mock threat to play mischief on the homeowners if no treat is given to them.

“But in this case, it looks like the tables were turned on our children as they ended up becoming victims of a dirty trick,” said one mother.