The food safety authorities in Telangana raided several restaurants across the state in the last few days and found a number of violations of safety norms and spotted use of expired products.
The Telangana food safety department said it found expired food items and open dustbins in Rameshwaram Café in the Madhapur area of the state on May 23.
In the past few days, the state authorities have been conducting inspections at various food establishments across Hyderabad as well.
The task force, which conducted the inspections, found urad dal's 100kg stock worth Rs 16,000 that had expired in March, while Nandini curd (10kg), milk (8L) worth Rs 700 were also found expired, state’s commissioner of food safety said in a post on X.
Task force team has conducted inspections in the Madhapur area on 23.05.2024.The Rameshwaram Cafe
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* Urad Dal (100Kg) stock found expired in Mar'24 worth Rs. 16K
* Nandini Curd (10kg), Milk (8L) worth Rs. 700 found expired
Above items discarded on the spot.
(1/4) pic.twitter.com/mVblmOuqZk
— Commissioner of Food Safety, Telangana (@cfs_telangana) May 23, 2024
The inspection also found ‘improperly’ labelled raw rice (450kg), while white lobia (20kg) worth Rs 26,000 and unlabeled jaggery (300kg) worth Rs 30,000 were seized, the commissioner said.
During the raids, the medical fitness certificates for food handlers were also not available and dustbins were not covered properly with lids, the commissioner said.
Rameshwaram Café, which is a famous South Indian restaurant chain, has recently expanded its quick service restaurant (QSR) network outside Bengaluru. It opened in Madhapur district of Hyderabad in January.
In another raid at Baahubali Kitchen in the area, the food safety body observed “heavy cockroach infestation in the kitchen and cockroaches were also found in food articles inside store room”. The commissioner said pest control records were not found.
It also found that the kitchen premises were “very unhygienic” and stagnation of water was observed in the cleaning area, while “semi-prepared and raw food were improperly stored inside refrigerator”.
The food safety task force also conducted raids in Banjara Hills area of the city on May 22.
During one such inspection in the area, the kitchen of popular ice cream chain Baskin Robbins was found to have expired packets of horn white chocolate (66 Pc pack) inside the refrigerator, the commissioner said. The food handler's medical fitness certificates were also not presented.
The Telangana food safety department’s task force had also conducted inspections at areas such as Somajiguda, Uppal, and Lakdikapul in the past few days.
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