This has to be satire.

Just another few years before we're all debt slaves happily renting all of our property (and land and media and ideas . . . and air) from our gracious corporate overlords. Rights? What rights? You signed those away when you consented to be born.

I mean, what if they made Moo Shu Pork? In Dubai.

Yeah, I'd want indemnity on that too.

This! Is! Spart- um... Dubai!!!!

Let me guess.. The food could be prepared in a non-Haalal manner or *is* Pork so this is their justification to being able to imprison/punish/sue/kill people who give pork to Muslims.

What little is there makes it read less like an EULA and more like a release form. I suspect it has less to do with making impositions upon the diners and more about protecting the establishment from circumstances that are beyond their control.

Agies... you got it in one. From my (albeit limited) experience working in banquets, what with licensing and liability concerns, if someone wants to take food away from your restaurant/banquet floor, you make 'em sign something like above. Sure, it doesn't speak too highly towards the shelf-life of said food, but then again, if you get ill from your poorly-preserved leftovers, no lawsuit for you!

Yes, even the doggie bag requires a EULA in this time and age. Go figure.

"legal requirements relating to food"

My guess is that there is pork in it and they are touchy about being sued because of it. However, litigation is probably the least of their worries as they know how their countrymen will react when they find out. This is CYA carried to the extreme. In other words, they are warning you that there may be pork in it and to consider yourself warned, so don't bomb the hotel because you ordered Chinese. This type of form would make more sense at McDonald's, though.

There was an episode of Sliders that started with something like this. Needing liability insurance and having to sign waivers to eat fast food.

They slid away before anyone had a chance to sue them.

Probably good advice if you find yourself in the alternate universe that is Dubai, too.

Just read #7 and #8. There's nothing more to it than that. I signed one of those releases in the U.S. several years ago to bring catered food back from an event we hosted. It protects them from liability for your carelessness. I bet anyone who takes surplus restaurant food for homeless shelters and the like has seen a hundred of them.

Release forms like these are pretty standard at all restaurant/banquet halls, at least every one I've worked for in the last 5 years. It has more to do with tightening of food service regulations, than with food quality. Banquet food is not intended to be taken off premises unlike restaurant food (when served to go or in doggie bags) and is not regulated like restaurant food.

I currently work in a hotel that serves both restaurant and banquet foods, all the food comes from the same kitchen, but banquet food needs a waiver to be taken off premises, once it's been served to guests. It's because the food has left the licensed food service area (the restaurant) and has been exposed to a less controlled environment (ie: it may have been touched by guests.)

Agies nailed it. It's not a EULA. It's a waiver.

They even have EULAs for hotels.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/eula-hotel-san-francisco

OK...I know that this is the internet, but can we reign in the knee-jerk reactions to everything just a little? This is not a sign of the end times, and no one has opened a vortex to an alternate universe. Also, this has nothing to do with whatever your perception of Dubai may be. In fact, I'd bet dollars to donuts that this type of release is far more common here in the United States.

This is most likely not for a pint of Mongolian Beef, but rather is for a large amount of food left over from a catered event. I used to run the kitchen of a catering hall whose primary business was wedding receptions, and we had a similar release. The problem is that most people do not understand that you can't just take a bunch of 12 x 20 inch hotel pans of hot food home, and just stick them in your fridge. The food in the middle of the pans will remain warm, and at the perfect temperature for breeding harmful bacteria, for hours and hours. But good luck explaining that to the intoxicated father of the bride, whose largest concern is getting every penny's worth of what he spent on that food.

It's a UK-owned hotel chain; I bet the form is standard.

I live in Qatar, the next country over, and in six years here I've NEVER signed a waiver, even for doing dangerous things like dune bashing. When we tried to have college students sign a waiver before borrowing Segways, they had no idea what it even was.

"...you can't just take a bunch of 12 x 20 inch hotel pans of hot food home, and just stick them in your fridge. The food in the middle of the pans will remain warm"

That is a damn good point! Never thought about that, but will now.

This has to be a fairly standard procedure that seems more reasonable once the proper context is provided.

This is new...?

About 5 years ago a pub in Watford (UK) made me sign a waiver before they'd cook my steak blue. And they still overcooked it...

As a lawyer, I feel a strange blend of contempt and grudging admiration.

Ah, I wish I could read the full contract, it always fascinates me what sort of things they think about when writing these. Point 2 doesn't even seem like something a layman can independently verify...

I dont get it. So you buy food which is then your property. But you're not allowed to transport it to beyond the perimeter of the premises unless you sign a waiver?
what if you dont sign? Will they call the police? What would they do? And then @4,6,7,8,9,11 et al: you seem to think this is normal. To me it is utterly senseless and pretty damn concerning. One more reason never to visit Dubai though.....;-)

Again, this is not a Dubai thing, or a waiver for a single pint container of takeout Chinese food. These wavers are used when the person that paid for a catered on-site event wants to take the (often large quantities) of leftover food home with them. The point of these waivers is to protect the business from the inevitable lawsuit that will arise when someone, who has no knowledge of, or training in how to safely handle and store such quantities of food, manages to give their entire extended family food poisoning. This is why many facilities simply will not give you the leftovers.

All it takes is the slightest whiff of a rumor of a food poisoning incident to completely destroy a catering business or restaurant. If you spent any amount of time in the food service industry, I think you'd quickly come to understand why this is neither senseless nor concerning.

I've been handed a similar waiver in Dubai when I asked the hotel staff to warm my daughter's baby food in a microwave.
Actually, it happened twice on that particular trip, and a few places simply refused to provide this service.

The hotel staff was quick to explain, and not at all surprised at my surprise ....

I've never seen it happen in Saudi Arabia or Bahrain, nor in any other country. Probably the product of some nasty lawsuits regarding food in hotels in Dubai or the Emirates.

As for the various knee-jerks re: pork or Dubai ... come visit / live in the region, then comment; constructively.

Actually, and sorry for double posting... it seems it was in the same hotel.
Maybe it's a Starwood group policy?