Monsoon’s munch maladies

A roadside eatery near Albert Ekka Chowk in Ranchi

Twenty-year-old Sameer Singh, a college-goer, fell ill after feasting on his favourite Chinese delicacies during a birthday bash at a Ranchi hotel a few days ago.

More recently, homemaker Sangeeta Kumari ended up with a vomiting bout after snacking at a roadside kiosk while returning from Pahari Mandir. “The doctor said I was suffering food poisoning,” said the 35-year-old, barely able to speak.

Watch your monsoon munch, especially when you are eating at one of the hundreds of food joints that have mushroomed at every nook and corner of the city, if you don’t want to land up with stomach infections or other rain-related afflictions.

Dishing out delicacies at nominal prices, these eateries — selling everything from chapatti-sabzi to chow mein — have little regard for hygiene and quality measures that need to be undertaken especially during the rainy season when humidity is at its peak, which helps viruses multiply faster.

With irregular or no food inspections and quality assurance tests, the eateries have a free run, offering stale food to customers and using unclean water.

“The most common ailment during this season is gastroenteritis, which causes vomiting, dysentery and even diarrhoea. Excessive water loss from the body occurs. This is because the eateries recycle stale food that remains unsold,” said A.K. Mahto, the head of medicine department at RIMS, adding that several such cases had already been reported at the hospital.

Another doctor at Sadar Hospital could not agree more. “On July 5, there were 12 cases of food poisoning. Most of the patients were poor or hailed from lower middle class. They can’t afford to eat at big hotels and mostly depend on thellas (food carts),” said the doctor, not wishing to be named.

Although after much delay, the state government finally implemented Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 & Rules 2011 in January this year, food joints continue to flout norms because of no regular quality checks.

State food controller T.P. Burnwal pleaded helplessness, saying that there were not enough number of food inspectors in the state to ensure regular and continuous sampling of food items being sold at hotels, food carts et al.

“In Ranchi, there are three food inspectors while four have been deputed for the entire state. However, we have issued directives to the seven inspectors in the wake of the monsoon, asking them to start inspections at all kinds of food outlets,” he said.