Chennai: Next time when you get your plate of lip-smacking biryani at a restaurant, look for spices that give it the delicious flavour If you could not find any of them, chances are your plate of biryani is an agent of cancer.
“Some hotel owners, to make the beef and other sorts of meats smell like mutton or chicken, use artificially manufactured essences. These essences contain harmful chemicals,” a Chennai corporation health department official said.
The official also said that the chemicals added to the essence would cause intestinal cancer and stomach cancer. According to sources, essence bottles are being sold at a few shops on Walltax Road, George Town. Meat smugglers and hotel owners have been supplied with the essence bottles unchecked.
Asserting the rising practice of adding artificial essences, Chennai corporation and food safety officials recently confiscated mutton essence bottles during raids against rotten and smuggled beef. “By adding the essence while making biryani, the original smell of rotten meat or beef could be obliterated to give the flavour of mutton or chicken, thus making eaters unable to identify about the kind of the meat they consume,” the official added.
Explaining the modus operandi of meat smugglers, the official said that miscreants would bring rotten meat under the label of fish by trains from other states. “They would set up a shed to chop the meat, which would mostly be beef. Before sending the meat to their ‘regular’ customers, the smugglers will mix the essence to create the smell of fresh mutton,” he said.
The Chennai corporation official also threw a shocker saying that the unhygienic meats have been supplied to some swanky star hotels too. “A few months ago we had found that some big star hotels buying smuggled rotten meat. But we were not able to seize papers and bills to corroborate the findings,” he said.
It may be recalled that the city police had rescued 12 cats from narikuravas, which would have otherwise ended up in roadside eateries to make ‘mutton’ biryani, on February 9. “If the hotel owners mix essence, one cannot find out whether the meat is beef or cat meat,” said the Chennai corporation official.
When contacted a food safety official, he said that many eateries have been using artificial substances like Ajinomoto to enhance the taste. “These chemically manufactured artificial essences are harmful to health. The department will take severe action against the manufactures of the essence if found harmful,” the official added.
Chemicals being used to increase viscosity in milk
Adulteration in milk had become the practice of old, as the new age adulterators use chemicals to increase the viscosity of milk.
“Many small tea shops around Chennai central area have been using chemically adulterated milk to make tea and coffee,” a Chennai Corporation official alleged. The official also said that the chemical would keep the viscosity of the milk even after adding more water.
However, it is not possible to find out the adulteration with naked eyes as the chemical do not affect smell and taste. “We cannot make milk guava using the chemically adulterated milk. The tea shops would sell chemical tea or
coffee only during the evenings,” the official said.
Civic body officials seize 1,100 kg of smuggled, rotten beef
Chennai corporation and food safety officials had seized 1,100 kg of smuggled and rotten beef at two
locations in Chennai.
According to the Chennai corporation officials, the civic body had seized 600 kg beef chopped in unhygienic conditions on the banks of Cooum river at Egmore on last Saturday. The officials also had seized four bottles of biryani essence from the spot.
Meanwhile, food safety officials on Sunday seized nearly 500 kg of smuggled beef from a warehouse at Triplicane. The officials registered cases at Egmore and Triplicane police stations, on which the police have initiated investigation.
“After a break of few years, the meat smugglers have again started to
supply rotten meat to hotels. Continuous raids will be conducted to check the practice,” the official said.
