Eating out becomes risky as FOOD CHECKS STOP ACROSS STATE

Chennai: Eating out has become risky, with state health authorities not inspecting restaurants or carrying out checks on their kitchens for the past seven months. This has become a problem since perishables rot faster in the summer heat due to longer power cuts.
    After the responsibility of food safety was taken from municipal corporations and given to a special state food safety unit, monitoring has been consigned to the backburner. The newly-formed unit has been struggling with its organisation, training and logistics.
    “We are yet to begin taking samples or conducting raids in Chennai,” said a food safety official in Chennai. “We are still registering eateries and setting up offices.” According to the state health department, corporations stopped collecting samples for testing and raiding restaurants to check if they are conforming to quality specifications in August 2011. A Chennai corporation official estimates that it may have been nine months since samples were collected.
    Health experts and corporation officials say unscrupulous restaurateurs and manufacturers of food products could take advantage of the fact that no checks are being conducted. “With several hours of power cuts being imposed on the state every day, the absence of checks could be a problem as perishable goods are likely to spoil even faster,” an official said.
    Officials say funding for the health department under the new Food Safety Act has begun only now, almost a year after the act was implemented. Even the state food commissioner is currently operating from the state homeopathy hospital without any support staff.
    Health department offices in other districts in the state have also been brought standstill, with the exception of Madurai and Coimbatore where officials recently started collecting samples for testing. “But we haven’t begun taking samples yet,” said a health department official in Tirunelveli. “Right now we our focus is on completing the registrations of over 12,000 small establishments in this district.”
    Many other districts are awaiting release of funds and allotment of office space. In Coimbatore samples have been collected from three restaurants so far and two were found to be contaminated but the authorities were unable to prosecute them, added a local food officer.
    Food safety, until last year, was overseen as additional duties by health officers in city and town municipal corporations. Rules regarding food safety were covered by the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act. Now a new, more comprehensive, law is in place that has specific instructions for food packaging, ingredient display, hygiene and sanitary conditions.