46 restaurants served notice

Used oil, stale food seized; eateries told to rectify problems in 7 days

The city Corporation intensified its crackdown on eateries that flouted food safety and hygiene standards by serving notices on 46 restaurants in the State capital on Thursday. Stale food was seized from many eateries during the drive.

Six squads comprising health inspectors and other Corporation employees inspected 59 restaurants in places such as Kamaleswaram, Manacaud, East Fort, Statue, Palayam, Thampanoor, and Karamana. The erring outlets have been instructed to rectify problems within seven days, failing which stringent steps will be initiated.

Large quantities of used oil, stale and expired food products including chicken, beef, fish, eggs, cauliflowers, potatoes, tea powder, biryani, butter, rice, curd, mayonnaise, ice-cream, fruits, porotta and chapatti were confiscated from many eateries. Some restaurants were serving food that were nearly a week old.

Dirty utensils

While they initiated action against most restaurants for their failure to provide health cards for workers, the civic body also penalised the eateries for other violations including the use of dirty utensils, failure to segregate wastes, lack of store room, chimney and facilities for proper ventilation, and unclean water tanks and surroundings.

A few outlets were also pulled up for their tardy upkeep of their interiors and instructed to paint the premises. The accumulation of leachate and food wastes that emanated foul odour within the restaurant compounds was also acted upon.

Plastic bags seized

Large quantities of banned plastic carry bags were also seized from several restaurants during the drive that was led by health supervisors Ajith Kumar, Prakash, and health inspectors Mohanachandran, Anoop Roy, Anil Kumar N.V. and Sujith Sudhakar.

According to Mayor V.K. Prasanth, some restaurants had violated the norms on multiple occasions. The health wing has been directed to cancel the licences of such outlets. He added that all eateries, ranging from ‘thattukadas’ to five-star hotels, will be inspected during the days to come.

The drive is as prelude to the launch of the civic body’s Subhojan project next month. As part of the project, workers of all eateries including hotels, restaurants, catering units, bakeries and wayside outlets in the city will be imparted training and issued identity cards.