A family in Tamil Nadu’s Arani, who had ordered food from a vegetarian restaurant on Sunday, September 11, claimed that they found a rat’s head in one of the food parcels. Murali, a resident of Thiruvannamalai, ordered 35 parcels of food from Shri Balaji Bhavan, to the guests who assembled in his house for a condolence event on September 11. The food was delivered to his house and nearly 30 people ate from the parcels. However, soon after, to their shock, one of the guests allegedly discovered a piece of meat in the beetroot fry.
The family inspected the meat, and claimed that it was a rat’s head. Murali and his family members took the food back to the restaurant, and raised a complaint with the management. According to the reports, the restaurant staff said that the food was sent to Murali's residence nearly six hours before lunch was served in the hall, and questioned the allegations. The incident led to a minor tussle between the two parties.
The matter was taken to the Arani police, who pacified both the parties and sent the parcels to the Food Safety Office in Thiruvannamalai for further testing. Subsequently, Murali filed a complaint against Shri Balaji Bhavan restaurant at the Arani Nagar police station.
Recently, the safety standards followed by restaurants and eateries in Tamil Nadu has come into focus, after a 16-year-old girl died of food poisoning in Kerala after eating shawarma in June this year. It is to be noted that food safety department officials in Tamil Nadu and Kerala conducted many surprise inspections of the restaurants and eateries after 16-year-old Devananda died after eating chicken shawarma from an eatery called Ideal Food Point in Kasaragode on May 1, in Kerala. Along with her, several others were hospitalised after they suffered from severe food poisoning.