Food safety panels visits NGO kitchen, takes mid-day meal samples for testing

You see how clean and hygienic our working conditions are. All workers wear glovesand caps, said Veer Singh, owner of the NGO.

SUMMARY

Denying theallegations, Singh said, We use branded rajma and dals, besan, and spices and oil.

In the kitchen run by NGO Bharat Ratan Dr Bheem Rao Ambedkar Dalit Utthan Evom Shiksha Samiti in East Delhi, huge machines cut out dough for puris, while workers serve rice from aluminium pans. Watching them are officials from the Food Safety Department, who are there to collect samples.

“You see how clean and hygienic our working conditions are. All workers wear gloves and caps. All the food is machine-cooked. It is packed andsealed here, and then dispatched to schools. We do not know how our food could have had insects in them,” Veer Singh, owner of the NGO which supplies mid-day meals to four schools in Patparganj, said.

On Thursday, 22 girls from Rajkiya Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, agovernment school in Patparganj, fell ill after allegedly consuming midday meals prepared by the NGO kitchen. The Directorate of Education said no complaints had come in from any other school.

Denying the allegations, Singh said, “We use branded rajma and dals, besan, and spices and oil. It is surprising that only 22 of the 560 students who ate the food fell ill. We received no complaints from other schools.”

Food Safety Department officer (East) Bhaskar said four samples of different food items — rajma beans, rajma curry, refined soyabean oil and wheat — had been collected for testing.

When Newsline went to Rajkiya Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya on Friday, food from the NGO kitchen had just been brought in. The woman in charge of distributing the meal said, “I had also eaten the food yesterday. I do not know why only 22 girls fell ill. There were hundred others who ate the food, but no one else fell ill.”

She said the food is inspected by a mid-day meal committee — comprising the principal, two teachers, two parents and two members of Vidyalaya Kalyan Samiti — before it is served to students.