On Xmas eve, 21 cake and wine-makers get stop memo

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As the Christmas and new year celebrations are set to begin, the food safety department has started conducting raids in bakeries, cake/wine production units etc to ensure safety of the food products. As many as 40 food safety squads were formed on the direction of food safety commissioner Veena N Madhavan.

As part of first phase of inspections conducted from Wednesday to Friday, functioning of 21 units were temporarily stopped due to unhygienic conditions and for operating without mandatory license. As many as 582 out of the total 1,287 food production units were slapped with improvement notices. A total fine of Rs 11,58,500 was imposed on erring units. The squad collected 31 food samples for further testing.

A fine of Rs 1,56,500 was imposed in Thiruvananthapuram district alone. Of the 81 institutions inspected in the district, 26 were slapped with improvement notices while two were served temporary closure notice.

In Kollam, 41 institutions were served improvement notices. A fine of Rs 97,000 was slapped on various units.

Temporary closure notices were served to one institution in Pathanamthitta, five in Alappuzha, two in Thrissur and nine in Malappuram.

Notices were served to 29 units in Pathanamtitta, 39 in Alappuzha, 53 in Kottayam, 32 in Idukki, 51 in Ernakulam, 65 in Thrissur, 29 in Palakkad, 68 in Malappuram, 62 in Kozhikode, 34 in Wayanad and 30 in Kannur. Food safety department said that inspections will continue.