‘City eateries pay no heed to quality, sanitation norms’

Quality goes for a toss: A file picture of enforcement officials raiding a restaurant at NAD Junction in Visakhapatnam. 

Notices served on many, but cases are pending in courts, say officials

The recent raids conducted by the officials of vigilance and enforcement, food safety and legal metrology departments on two noted restaurants in the city have found leftover food being stored in refrigerators only to be served to customers again. Samples were collected and notices were served on the proprietors over the poor sanitation on their premises.

This has brought to the fore the question over the quality of food being served at the city hotels. The officials of food safety and vigilance departments observe that many restaurants and food courts are flouting safety norms, putting the public health at stake.

According to them, food courts and restaurants are classified into three categories – star, medium and low class. “Most of the eateries including street food joints and small restaurants that fall in the low class category pay no heed to hygiene on their premises,” they say.

A large number of restaurants fall under the medium category including coffee shops, soup stalls, ice cream parlours, bakeries and a few others.

“Medium category restaurants are mushrooming in the city. Though the external ambience look flashy, the problem lies in their kitchens,” says a food safety official on condition of anonymity. “We have come across a number of cases of food being prepared in unhygienic conditions. Cockroaches were also found in kitchens. The arrangements in place to clean utensils, use of oil, maintenance of RO plants are poor,” he explains.

According to officials, several noted biryani points have been caught flouting norms by using stale meat for cooking. Though many hotels have been served notices, cases are pending in court, they say.

Lack of staff

“Even, several star hotels have cases of food adulteration, using low quality oil pending against them,” the official says.

Asked about the measures in place to put these gangs under check, the officials say that staff crunch force them to limit the number of raids. Though there is a steep rise in the number fast food joints, the food safety department seldom conducts raids to check the quality.

“The food safety wing of the GVMC needs at least eight to 10 Food Safety Officers (FSOs), but we have just five,” points out an official. Admitting that lack of adequate staff has been a problem, Food Safety Officer of Visakhapatnam G. Apparao says the posts have been sanctioned long ago, but recruitments are yet to be done.

Adulterations gangs on the prowl

Vigilance officials also say that many food adulteration gangs are on the prowl. In the past, the officials of Vigilance & Enforcement have nabbed number of gangs at several places. “In the past, we caught gangs red-handed selling expired food products in new packs. They sold expired atta (wheat flour) in new covers with fake expiry date under fake brand names at Sivajipalem, Kancharapalem and Gajuwaka,” Vigilance & Enforcement Inspector Mallikarjuna Rao says.

The officials also seized more than 2,000 litres of adulterated cooking oil and a tanker at HB Colony. The gang would collect used edible oils and mix them with fresh stock and sell it Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, he said.

Doctors say that consumption of the adulterated oil and food prepared in unhygienic conditions can lead to long term diseases including liver cancer, jaundice and many more.