Food safety officials to inspect soft drink stalls

Summer drive against waterborne diseases

In an effort to prevent waterborne diseases during summer, the Food Safety Department will launch an intensive drive in the district on Tuesday.

This comes close on the heels of the Health Department’s action against a few ice plants which supplied contaminated products in the city recently.

Officials at the Kerala Food Safety Commisisonerate here said squads would test the quality of water being used for making soft drinks and juice in parlours and shops in the district. The hygiene standards of the shops and the quality of packaged products too would be checked during the drive, they said.

O. Sankaranunni, Assistant Commissioner, said there were complaints that many juice parlours were using cheap industrial ice for making soft drinks. “We will look into the issue seriously. A 10-member squad will conduct surprise checks,” he said.

Samples to be collected

Mr. Sankaranunni said samples would be collected from suspected shops for lab tests. If serious quality violations were found, the shops would be shut down immediately for public safety, he said. The summer inspection conducted by the department last year had unveiled a series of flaws on the part of the soft drink dealers in various parts of the district. Around 150 shop owners had been booked for selling contaminated soft drinks and fruit juice and Rs. 5.55 lakh collected as fine from them.

Since the beginning of this summer season, Health Department squads too have been conducting checks. “We have already closed down an ice plant at Beypore which was found supplying contaminated product,” said a health officer. Eleven ice manufacturing units in the coastal area of the city were served notice for violating the quality norms.

There are complaints that many juice parlours are using cheap industrial ice for making soft drinks. We will look into the issue seriously.

O. Sankaranunni

Assistant Commissioner, Kerala Food Safety Commisisonerate