KOCHI: Officials of the food safety department (FSD) sealed one more lassi manufacturing unit at Kunnumpuram in Edappally on Friday after they found that it was operating without a food safety licence. Two lassi shops, one near Ernakulam North railway station and another at Kaloor, were also closed for operating without licence.
“Unlike the other day, we didn’t find any unhygienic conditions in the lassi manufacturing unit at Kunnumpuram but it was operating without a licence and necessary legal documents. We have also carried out inspections in five lassi shops in the city and of them, three were given closure notices for functioning sans licence,” said Zakeer Hussain, food safety enforcement officer.
The units will remain closed until the food safety norms are complied with, he added.
FSD officials said that samples of all the flavours and mixes collected from the warehouses in the last two raids have been sent to the regional chemical laboratory at Kakkanad.
“We expect a detailed report in two weeks’ time. The samples have been given to check whether any chemical other than permitted flavours have been added,” said K V Shibu, Ernakulam food safety officer.
Officials said that the warehouses in which the mixing was done ahead of supply to shops had unhygienic conditions. The lassi manufacturing unit at Karukapilly in Kaloor was sealed on Wednesday after officials found old worm-infested buttermilk, buckets of buttermilk buckets lying open next to the toilets and even dog poop.
The unhygienic conditions were first noticed during an inspection carried out by the State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) officials. They conducted raids after it came to their notice that the lassi shops mushrooming in the city have been evading tax despite huge turnover in sales. GST enforcement wing immediately alerted the food safety officials following which a surprise raid was carried out.
Meanwhile, the Kochi corporation’s health wing and food safety department have decided to intensify raids on all the lassi shops and manufacturing units operating in the city to assess the quality of beverage being served there.
Mayor Soumini Jain said that most of the lassi shops in the city have been functioning without the licence of corporation’s health wing.
Health standing committee of the Kochi corporation has directed the secretary of the local body to prepare a report on all juice vending shops in the city.
“Stringent action will be taken against those shops selling unhealthy juices prepared in unhygienic conditions as well as those operating without license,” said Minimol V K, health standing committee chairperson.
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