A hotel in Nedumangad of Thiruvananthapuram has been temporarily closed by the food safety officials, after a customer found remains of snake skin in the food parcel. The incident took place on Thursday, May 5, when a woman had purchased parotta from the shop at Chandamukku. Assistant Commissioner of Food Safety, Thiruvananthapuram, Anil Kumar told TNM that the hotel has been temporarily closed, after the incident was reported.
According to reports, a woman named Priya and her daughter had bought two parottas for their lunch, of which the daughter ate one and the mother started eating the second one. That was when she found a part of the snake's skin on the parcel. After she informed the police who directed her to the Food Safety Officials, they inspected the shop and ordered it shut.
“We inspected the hotel immediately. It worked in a bad condition. The kitchen did not have sufficient lighting and scrap was seen dumped outside. The outlet was shut at once and a show-cause notice served. Our preliminary finding is that the dead skin was in the newspaper used for packing the food,” food safety officer of Nedumangad Circle Arshitha Basheer had said to TNIE.
Recently, a 16-year-old girl had died and at least 40 of them were hospitalised due to suspected food poisoning from an eatery in Kasaragod district. Three of the hotel workers were arrested and booked under sections 304 (death by negligence), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 272 (adulteration) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). According to district medical officer (DMO) Dr AV Ramdas, the food poisoning was caused by a deadly bacterium called shigella.