Kochi: Concerned about the sale of substandard and
stale food in the city, people are hoping the newly constituted flying
squad of the corporation’s health department will come to their rescue
and force hotels and shopkeepers to pull up their socks.
Should people find hotels cooking under unhygienic conditions or
serving stale food, they can now approach the squad which promises to
promptly arrive on the scene and take action. It can also be approached
with complaints about sanitation or dumping of waste in open places.
While the squad, set up in response to several complaints of poor
quality food being served in city hotels, is empowered to issue notices
on the spot, a section of civic and health experts are not sure it can
succeed in curbing sale of substandard or stale food.
“The civic body has no legal authority to check the quality of food
items or collect samples. Even if a case is reported, it cannot take
penal action against the offenders,” say officers of the food safety
authority, recalling that when the civic body’s health wing recently
seized 1000 kgs of rotten meat, food safety officers had claimed the
meat samples were collected in violation of the Food Safety Act.
Corporation health standing committee chairman, T.K Ashraf, however,
asserts that necessary measures will be taken with the support of food
safety officials against the sale of stale and substandard food in the
city based on people’s complaints.
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