Inspections on eateries to continue
Food safety offices will be opened in all 140 Assembly constituencies by June 30 to strengthen the food safety and standards drive, Health Minister V.S. Sivakumar said on Monday.
At a review meeting of the food safety wing here, he directed the Commissioner of Food Safety and the Director of Health Services to conduct continuous inspections on eateries and street food corners and insist on strictly complying with food safety and hygiene standards as the threat of food and waterborne infectious diseases was high during the rainy season.
During an intensive food safety drive across the State as part of the Food Safety Week, the department inspected 917 food businesses and the licences of 27 were suspended for failing to keep necessary safety standards.
Samples of 76 brands of edible oils, 18 brands of milk, and hundreds of samples of mangoes, fruits, and vegetables were collected during the week for testing.
From June 2, special raids would be conducted around schools to prevent the sale of tobacco products, adulterated sweets and candies, and nicotine-laced chewing gum.
Nicotine-laced candies were seized from a shop near a school in Kozhikode on Monday.
Adulterated oil
The food safety wing had also strengthened measures to check the flow of adulterated edible oil from across the border into Kerala. Over 800 tanker lorries carrying oil were checked by officials at the border check-posts in the past two weeks.
Mr. Sivakumar also directed the Food Safety Commissioner to launch strict action against juice shops which are found to be using commercial ice or water of suspect quality.
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