29 October,2010 07:22 AM IST | | Priyanka Vora
Fed up of tasting food for VIPs including President Pratibha Patil, JJ doctors hope Obama, who is bringing his personal food taster, will set a precedent
You don't sign up to be a lab rat when you get your MBBS degree. And the doctors at the JJ group of hospitals might yet avoid being one for President Obama as they have learnt that that he will be accompanied by his personal "food taster" on the trip.
This set of doctors, who get the jitters every time a VIP visits the city on being tasked with tasting their meals, will hope that Obama influences other VIPs to also bring along their own "food tasters".
"Whenever a VIP visits, qualified doctors like us are expected to inspect the kitchen where the food is cooked, and even taste the food before the VIP eats it. We didn't become doctors to act like guinea pigs," said a doctor, on condition of anonymity.
Obama is expected to be accompanied by his personal food taster on his Mumbai trip
Emphasising the ridiculousness of the entire exercise, another doctor added, "We are expected to taste the food for its palatability and also to check if it is spiked. How is that of any help when the VIP eats the food within 10 minutes after we taste it? The poison could easily take affect much later."
In fact, a team of 10 doctors are currently deployed at "food tasting" sessions for President Pratibha Patil, who is on a two day visit to Mumbai herself. And a meeting of hospital authorities was scheduled yesterday to decide the course of action the doctors are expected to take for President Obama.
Another doctor added hopefully, "We agree to appointing doctors for medical emergencies during such high profile visits. Food tasting is an old tradition and only the Protocol Officer's suggestion can change it.
But we wish that like President Obama, other VIPs too get their personal food tasters. His visit might change this practice for once."
Dr T P Lahane, dean of JJ hospital, said," We have not been officially intimated about Obama's visit but we are prepared to send our doctors whenever asked for."
Barack Obama is scheduled to visit the city on November 6, as a part of his two-day trip to Mumbai.
Obama's Trusted Tester
In 2009, during President Obama's visit to Paris, a US "taster" tasted the food being dished up to the President and his family in a French restaurant.
"They have someone who tastes the dishes," said waiter Gabriel de Carvalho from the La Fontaine de Mars restaurant where the family dined.
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"It wasn't very pleasant for the cooks at first, but the person was very nice and was relaxed, so it all went well," he said.
The US Secret Service has always refused to confirm that US presidents travel with a food "taster", in line with their policy of discretion on all security related issues.
