Kochi: Stale food seized from eateries

KOCHI: The health officials of Tripunithura municipality conducted raids in three leading hotels in the town on Tuesday.

The stale food seized from these restaurants – dishes of meat, fish and egg – were displayed at the reception of the municipal office along with the name tag of eateries.

Officials of the food safety department had earlier conducted a raid at a prominent juice chain in Tripunithura following complaints by customers who were given stale pani puri. A woman who ate pani puri from the outlet on Saturday had vomited immediately. Aluva food safety officer V Shanmukhan rushed to the eatery after they complained to the state food safety commissioner. “We have sent the food samples to Kakkanad lab for analysis. After getting a detailed lab report, we will take stringent action against the outlet,” the food safety officer said.

The raid by municipal health officials on Tuesday was carried out to ensure food safety in eateries.

Food safety officials in the district on Tuesday conducted inspections in shops and food-processing centres in select panchayats. Raids were also conducted in bar hotels and restaurants and tankers transporting drinking water.

Food safety nodal officer for the district said around 110 inspections were carried out by the department on Tuesday. The inspections were carried out in Varapuzha and Payipra, which are among 11 panchayats selected in the district as food safety panchayats.

Food safety officer for Muvattupuzha said they mostly checked licences of eateries.

“We have issued around 50 notices across the district following this,” said a department official.

The department would also conduct food safety awareness programmes in the 11 selected panchayats from Friday. The process of making these panchayats safe for food consumption would be complete by March 31.

The department officials in association with the excise department also conducted raids in select bar hotels in the district. This is following a directive from the excise commissioner asking for joint raids to ensure quality of food served in bar hotels.

The officials also conducted inspection of water tankers to ensure safety of drinking water supplied to apartments and regions with water scarcity. “All the tanker lorries that we inspected had proper licence. We have collected water samples and we would take action if they are found to be filthy,” an official said.