The food safety and drug administration on Tuesday inspected the kitchens of Indira canteens in Bengaluru, days after cracking down on several star hotels and high-end restaurants in the city.
Videos of the kitchens, which surfaced on social media, showed rats crawling through sacks of rice, with officials seen checking the items. One of the videos further showed torn packaging for a food item.
The Indira canteens is one of the Congress-led Karnataka government's flagship initiatives which serves highly subsided food. It was started by former chief minister Siddaramaiah during his previous stint from 2013 to 2018.
“A special team was constituted to inspect the quality, safety, storage, labelling and food handling practices at the main kitchens/food preparation units of the Indira Canteens,” a press release by the FSDA said on Tuesday. The department warned of “strict legal action” against food business operators who were found violating food safety regulations.
{{/usCountry}}“A special team was constituted to inspect the quality, safety, storage, labelling and food handling practices at the main kitchens/food preparation units of the Indira Canteens,” a press release by the FSDA said on Tuesday. The department warned of “strict legal action” against food business operators who were found violating food safety regulations.
{{/usCountry}}‘Indira canteen at Gottigere sealed, various food safety violations found’: FSDA
The food safety and drug administration conducted the searches at Indira canteens Gottigere, Lingarajapuram and Singasandr, according to the press release. “The warehouse of the Indira Canteen at Gottigere was sealed due to the unhygienic food handling and storage conditions observed during the inspection, in accordance with the applicable FSSAI provisions,” it said.
The department said that various food safety violations were observed during the inspections at the canteens, including “non- compliant labelling, misbranding, unhygienic food handling conditions and other violations of FSSAI requirements.” Following this, notices were issued to the concerned food business operators of all three establishments.
The FSDA recommended the filing of cases before the respective Adjudicating Officers for further legal action according to the provisions of the law. It said that various samples of food products, including pulses, turmeric powder, cooking oil, jaggery, salt, sugar and other prepared food items, were collected from the three establishments during the inspections. These were sent to the designated food laboratory for analysis to assess their quality and compliance with prescribed food safety standards.
“The Food Safety and Drug Administration Department will continue to undertake such special inspection drives to ensure that the public is provided with safe, wholesome, hygienic and quality food,” it said.
Meat with fungus, rotten veggies found at five Bengaluru hotels
The inspections at the Indira canteens came after checks the state's food safety department conducted checks at several hotels in Bengaluru and seized huge quantities of rotten meat and vegetables.
The food safety department seized a total of over 132 kg of food items from five hotels, ranging from rotten chicken, beef, duck, fish to vegetables such as green peas, mushrooms, potatoes and more. It also seized 15 kg of cooking oil.
The hotels from where these items were seized are — Hotel Sky in UB City, Royal Chain Hotel, Madras Kitchen, Tescon Hotel, and Senchez Hotel, ANI news agency reported.