To ensure better quality, KMC starts food drive from Golpark Team

 | 20 Sep 2017 2:28 PM To ensure better quality, KMC starts food drive from Golpark Kolkata: In a bid to ensure that the quality of food is not compromised with during the Durga Puja, food safety officers of Kolkata Municipal Corporation on Wednesday kicked off their food drive from Golpark area in South Kolkata. 

The team was led by Member Mayor-in-Council (Health) Atin Ghosh. The drive was started from Purna Das Road where a number of restaurants serving authentic Bengali and Chinese cuisines are located. The team was dissatisfied with the hygienic condition of the kitchen at Azad Hind Dhaba where the floor was found to be very filthy. "We have instructed them to change the kitchen floor immediately and served notice to them for keeping the kitchen dirty," a health officer involved in the drive said. 

The cornflour packet that was used for cooking in the Chinese restaurant 'Bliss' was also found without the level of Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) which is mandatory for any packaged product. Even the kitchen at 'Tero Parbon' needs better maintenance," an official said. The team found bread crumbs with artificial colour and poor quality from the restaurant 'Jhole Jhale Ambale' which is presently closed for renovation. 

The packet of bread crumb was destroyed immediately. The Indthalia restaurant at Hindustan Park was using Ajinomoto which can be carcinogenic though the packet with the stuff had FSSAI mark. "It is written in the packet that this should not be consumed by children below 12 years. A restaurant is never in a position to cook food for children with separate ingredients. So I had urged the restaurant authorities not to use Ajinomoto in food for health reasons," Ghosh said. 

He also instructed them to furnish trade licenses inside the restaurant which was not there and had to be brought from a nearby location. The team also visited a number of roadside food stalls and made them aware of the basic food safety standards that should be followed. The team also circulated booklets brought out by the civic body as per food safety standards of FSSAI. 

"During the Puja days, we will focus on the temporary stalls that will be set up in and around the puja pandals. In the next few days, we will cover various leading restaurants across the city," Ghosh said.