In the wake of the death of a 16-year-old girl from Kasaragod due to food poisoning after eating a shawarma and a few other cases, including finding a portion of snake skin in a wrapped food packet, the Kerala Food Safety Authority has ramped up checking across the state. State Health Minister Veena George on Friday said the authorities carried out a statewide inspection in the past five days.
"In the five days of the wide ranging inspection conducted at 1,132 eateries, it was found out that 61 establishments had no license, 110 eateries were closed due to poor cleanliness, and 347 eateries were served show cause notices. 140 kg meat was seized and 93 samples have been sent for tests," she said.
George noted that food adulteration is a serious offence and strict action will be taken against all the wrongdoers. "Various drives, which found adulteration in jaggery, curry powder, coconut oil, besides milk, are currently going on. More raids will be conducted across the state and it includes inspection at entry points to the state and markets and food processing centres," she added.
Intervening in the issue after suo motu registering a case against the food poisoning death at Kasaragod, the Kerala High Court on Friday said such an unfortunate incident could have been avoided had stricter checks and balances been in place and demanded that there should be all round checks all the time.
"We are, like every other citizen, appalled — not only of the terribly unfortunate turn of events, but pondering how it could happen at all when strict enforcement and analytical regimes and systems are already in place under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006," a bench of Justices Devan Ramachandran and PG Ajithkumar said while initiating a PIL on the issue.
The court arraigned the Health Department and the Commissioner of Food Safety as parties and listed the PIL for further consideration on May 6.