The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) officials sealed a restaurant in Hyderabad and fined six eateries for lack of hygiene and poor food standards.
A team comprising Deputy Commissioners, health and sanitation officials on Tuesday afternoon conducted the raid on Y2K restaurant in Panjagutta, after receiving several complaints about the food quality.
At the time of the inspection, Y2K restaurant, which is on the main road near the traffic police station in Panjagutta, was crowded.
The accused was found preparing food using stale meat, which was stored inside the fridge for more than three days, while officials also found the other food products to be stale.
“Raw chicken is allowed to be kept inside the freezer. But the cooked meat is only allowed one day storage but here they have been keeping it for more than three days. The food has a bad smell, it’s rotten,” he added.
The GHMC's health officer who deals with kitchen hygiene, says that the flooring and utensils being used are not washed properly.
The officials have collected samples of meat, rice and curry to check the quality of the food.
“They have been preparing and selling food articles without a food and health trade licence. We had raided this restaurant earlier, a few months back and had given notice with penalty,” said E Sudharshan Reddy, food inspector.
Reports say that the management resisted as officials tried to seal the restaurant for storing stale meat and not having proper licenses.
After coming to know that the restaurant had been serving stale food, several customers expressed surprise.
“I usually come here for lunch. This is shocking,” one of the customers standing outside the restaurant said.
“The kitchen of this restaurant is unhygienic. The walls of the kitchen are full of grease which have not been cleaned for months,” said Venkat Ramana, a health officer in GHMC.
GHMC officials imposed fines on Almas Palace in Jubilee Hills, Papadams in Vanasthalipuram, Maharaja Restaurant and Bar, Mount Paradise Bar & Family Restaurant and Sri Siddhi Udupi Tiffin & Restaurant.
For the past few weeks, the GHMC has been conducting massive raids across the city.
The municipality has reportedly raided more than 70 restaurants, of which 54 were using stale meat and had dirty kitchens.
This came after GHMC instructed the hotels under their limits, to maintain hygienic premises and to use only stamped goat meat from notified slaughterhouses.