Hamza: Boy, 13, dies after eating raw Indomie instant noodles in Cairo, Egpyt

A teenage boy has died after eating uncooked instant noodles, leaving his family reeling, and raising concern over food safety.

The 13-year-old boy, identified as Hamza, returned home from an evening prayer and Quran memorisation class in Cairo, Egypt on August 16 before he ate three packets of raw instant noodles.

Within 30 minutes of eating the noodles reported to be made by the popular Indonesian brand Indomie, he began to suffer from severe abdominal pain, and started vomiting and sweating.

Hamza was then rushed to hospital where doctors instructed his family to take him to a toxicology centre as they suspected he had been poisoned.

Tragically, the boy died before he made it to the centre.

Hamza’s father confirmed that he died while in the ambulance after resuscitation attempts were unsuccessful. Medical tests found no drugs or illicit substances in his system.

The Egyptian public prosecution has ordered the arrest of the shop owner who sold the noodles and an investigation into the product is underway, YNet reported.

It is unclear whether any charges have been laid.

Samples from the noodle packet used by Hamza have been taken for testing, with an autopsy planned to determine his cause of death.

Social media users have expressed their alarm that such a common food may have caused the boy’s death.

“In some places, people eat raw noodles by mixing it with the flavour given by the packet. I live in South East and people do that everyday. Never once heard (of) anyone (who) died eating it,” one Facebook user wrote.

“A warning to everyone eating noodles in it raw form, quiet sad, thoughts goes to the family,” another wrote.

Concerns over Indomie products have been raised before in Egypt in 2022, when the country’s Food Safety Authority announced 733,340 cartons of Indomie products would be withdrawn from the market.

This comes after a young boy died after eating instant noodles and rice with his family last year.

Rahul Kumar, a seven-year-old boy from Dehradun, India, was visiting his grandparents with his mother and two siblings.

In the evening of May 9, the family shared a meal of instant noodles and rice and shortly afterwards they all started to feel unwell, the Hindustan Times reported.

They were admitted to a private hospital the next day, but were discharged and rushed to a local community health centre for further treatment.

Tragically, Rahul died on the way there.

The Nightly has reached out to Indomie for comment.