Kasargod, July 21: Municipal and Health and Food department officials carried out raids in various hotels and food outlets, including bakeries, for the third day on Saturday as part of the State-wide searches being made in the wake of the recent death of a youth who consumed contaminated food items in an outlet in Thiruvananthapuram.
Health officials inspect a restaurant in Kasaragod
The widespread searches, in fact, put the floating public and other customers in a great ordeal, as quite a few restaurants opted to shut down for the day amid reports of alleged harassment by the officials in the town and nearby Kanhangad.
The fresh development comes as the restaurant owners from the Muslim community enforced nearly a month-long closure of their establishment in view of the Ramadan fast that began in the State from Saturday.
The inspection teams have reportedly found food items under highly unhygienic conditions. During the day, two raids were carried out in Neeleshwaram and Cheruvathur towns.
In Kalpetta, a meeting of food safety officials, chaired by Additional District Magistrate M.P. Arumughan, on Friday decided to take legal action against restaurants and owners of food outlets selling stale food items and preparing food in unhygienic conditions as per the Food Safety Act.
The food safety officials inspected 48 restaurants in the district in the last three days and seized stale food from 12 restaurants. The ADM directed the officials to intensify raids in the coming days. The meeting decided to ban the sale of shawarma for a week.
All hotels and restaurants should obtain licences and registration certificates from the authorities concerned before August 5, Mr. Arumughan said. The public can register complaints over the phone at 9633486072, 8943346192.
A dead lizard found in a dish served at a hotel in Kolassery near Thalassery
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