Spotlight on Hyderabad Hotels as World Celebrates Food Safety Day

World Food Safety Day (WFSD) is celebrated annually on June 7 to remind the importance of keeping food safe to everyone. This means we need to stop, find, and handle any dangers in our food so that everyone has safe food to eat. The day also offers a chance for people to make sure and work hard that the food we eat is safe for our health.

Emphasizing the significance of being ready for food safety incidents, the WHO has set “Food Safety: Prepare for the Unexpected" as the theme for 2024.

Recently, in Telangana, officials of the food safety department have been actively inspecting restaurants in many parts of Hyderabad and found out lot of scams and disparity happening in the kitchens of hotels and restaurants.

Well-known Bengaluru-based food chain, The Rameshwaram Café was also found violating the regulations in Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) raids on May 23.

During the raids, various mislabeled and expired food items were found. The investigating authorities found expired food articles including - eight liters of milk, ten kilograms of curd, and a hundred kilograms of urad dal.

The food safety team also discovered incorrect labeling on 450 kg of uncooked rice and 20 kg of white labio. It was reported that the food items were worth around Rs 25,000. Additionally, 300 kg of unlabeled jaggery valued at Rs 30,000 was also seized.

Attempting to guarantee food safety throughout Hyderabad, state officials are conducting search operations across the city. Similar violations were identified by FSSAI teams at many popular eateries. Inspections showed that a number of well-known restaurants were not following food safety regulations such as Nimrah Café, Baskin Robbins Banjara Hills, Kritunga, Master Chef Restaurant, Shadab Restaurant, Kamat Hotel, Ratnadeep Retail Store, KFC, 36 Downtown Brew Pub etc.

The Food Safety Department has been using social media to share its findings and information on which businesses don't stick to the safety regulations. Various violations have been found during the inspections, which include the use of expired ingredients and poor hygiene practices such as handling food without wearing gloves or a hair cap, open dustbins, not having a medical fitness certificate, and the use of artificial food colors. In some instances, they discovered meals that were being prepared close to open sewers and maida infested with black beetles.

Some places, however, remained an exception to these violations including the Manam Chocolate Karkhana, passing the FSSAI inspection and was deemed to be in compliance.

The findings show the miserable state of hotels and eateries in and around the city, prompting the citizens to review their ‘eating-out’ habits. The raids were important, as they brought a change in people’s perspective on consuming food at such entries.