Meat shops raided at HSR Layout

It was based on 25 complaints in Sept.

With a bevy of complaints reaching the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, Food Safety Commissionerate officials raided more than 10 meat shops in HSR Layout on Wednesday and directed shopkeepers to follow hygiene norms or else face closure.

What happened

• Over 10 meat shops raided
• Shopkeepers directed to follow hygiene norms or else face closure
• Authorities found alleged violations pertaining to storage and culling

The raids were based on 25 complaints filed by animal rights activists in September. The shops had violated food safety norms, and were found to be illegal and unhygienically selling meat, according to the authorities. “We have given them 15 days to respond to the notice, after which they will be closed,” said a local officer of the commissionerate, which found that the meat was exposed to dust and smoke spewed by vehicles.

While the authorities could find alleged violations pertaining to storage and culling, the quality of the meat could not be tested. The reason: it takes ₹5,000 to test just one sample of meat — a budget the commissionerate does not have.

On Thursday, officials hope to raise the issue with the Health Ministry and seek an exemption in rates that would allow for more testing. “Currently, all meat samples have to be sent to our laboratory in Hyderabad. The cost comes up to around ₹5,800 per sample, and it is too expensive to do it for all complaints received,” said Harshavardhan B., Joint Commissioner of Food Safety in Karnataka.

The cost prohibition was not limited to meat. A few months ago, the department was flooded with more than 500 samples of ‘contaminated’ eggs and rice, where plastic pellets were suspected to have been used to dilute the quality. However, the department could only manage to send 12 samples for testing. The lack of testing methods has seen officials resort to the rudimentary taste test.

‘A welcome step’

Varda Mehrotra, director of the National Federation for Animal Protection, said any sort of action from authorities was a welcome step. The BBMP and the Food Safety Commissionerate have taken serious note of the complaints and we hope the lives of animals and human beings alike would become better with increased regulation of meat shops, he said in a press release.