Rotten chicken, beef seized from Bengaluru's high-end restaurants in food raid
The kitchen of an upscale rooftop lounge in Bengaluru was closed after food safety officials found it was being maintained in an "unhygienic" manner, officials
The kitchen of an upscale rooftop lounge in Bengaluru was closed after food safety officials found it was being maintained in an "unhygienic" manner, officials said on Monday. During the same inspection drive, rotten chicken and beef, some of it with fungal growth, were also seized from high-end eateries in the city. The inspections were carried out on Sunday at six premium restaurants in UB City and on Brigade Road as part of the Food Safety and Drug Administration Department's ongoing drive to check compliance with the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, and the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Regulations, 2011. At the rooftop lounge in UB City, officials also found milk and curd packets that had expired 10 days earlier. Read Full Story According to officials, an inspection at another high-end restaurant in UB City led to the seizure of 45 kg of rotten chicken and beef, 6 kg of vegetable cutlets and 15 litres of used cooking oil.
The food items, which were found to be unfit for consumption, were discarded or destroyed as per procedure. Officials said other items seized from eateries included 50 kg of duck meat, 5 kg of fish, 5 kg of green peas and 5 kg of mushrooms. In all, 132 kg of food items were seized and disposed of during the inspections at the high-end restaurants. The department said the inspections were conducted from August 7 onwards as part of a three-day special food safety drive across all zones of Bengaluru Urban District and the Greater Bengaluru Area, covering three-star and five-star hotels. In a statement, it said 60 three-star and five-star hotels in Bengaluru Urban District were inspected and 77 food samples were collected and sent to food laboratories for analysis. "During the inspections, samples of various food items-chicken, meat, fish, bread, mayonnaise, cooking oil, fresh oil, curd, pulses, chickpeas/chana, coriander, chutneys and marinated food products, were collected from different establishments and sent to the food laboratories for analysis to assess their quality and compliance with food safety standards," it said.
The department said inspectors found several violations, including non-compliant labelling under FSSAI regulations, misbranding, storage of expired food products, improper storage of meat, fish and poultry, unhygienic food-handling conditions, fungal growth in vegetables, and improper segregation of vegetarian and non-vegetarian food products. It said notices had been issued to the hotels concerned and recommendations had been made for filing cases before the respective adjudicating officers for further action in accordance with the law. Special inspections were also carried out at international food businesses operating in the Greater Bengaluru Area. During an inspection at a popular burger joint on Brigade Road, officials alleged that magnesium sulphite (MgSO3) was being used in connection with the treatment or purification of used frying oil. "Accordingly, a notice has been issued to the concerned food business operator in accordance with the applicable provisions. The matter will be examined under the prevailing food safety regulations and other applicable legal provisions, and necessary further action will be taken based on the findings," the department said.
The BriefWire