In the wake of a spate of suspected food poisoning incidents across Kerala, state Health Minister Veena George on Wednesday, May 18, said a food security licence would be mandatory for all eateries as part of the government's campaign to ensure good food is provided to the people. The minister said all eateries, hotels and restaurants in the state must obtain a food safety registration or licence within three months and all of them would have to prominently display the toll-free number of the Food Safety department in their establishments.
The other measures, to ensure safe food is provided to citizens, that the government intends to bring in include stricter inspections and putting in place a system that would allow the public to upload complaints along with photographs, the minister said in a release. These decisions were taken in a high-level meeting of Food Safety Department officials, the release said.
In the meeting, it was also decided that food safety inspections should not be stopped after a while and that it should be a continuous operation. Various other steps, like getting samples tested in a timely manner, regular analysis of the inspections and strengthening awareness programmes, were also put forward by the minister in the meeting, the release said.
Earlier this month, officials said that pathogenic salmonella and shigella were detected in the 'shawarma' samples collected from an eatery in Kerala's Kasaragod district where around 58 people fell ill and a young girl died after consuming the dish on May 1
While Shigella is one of the leading bacterial causes of diarrhea worldwide and is an intestinal infection caused by a family of bacteria, Salmonella infection (salmonellosis) is a common bacterial disease that affects the intestinal tract.