BENGALURU: There seems to be no end to the controversy over food quality at Indira Canteens. A report based on tests conducted at Dasappa Hospital has contradicted the BJP corporator Umesh Shetty's allegations that the canteens served poor quality food. Dasappa Hospital tested samples from 13 Indira Canteens outlets and claimed that the quality of food served at the canteens maintained the proposed standard.
The hospital is said to have conducted tests on samples of lemon rice, anna sambhar, curd rice, pulav and others, and concluded that all the food items followed the prescribed and proposed standard, and that they were not harmful for human consumption as alleged by the corporator.
However, the BBMP which had sent samples from 33 canteens to three different laboratories, including Dasappa Hospital, is yet to receive reports of tests on 20 samples from the other two labs.
Manoranjan Hegade, Chief Health Officer, BBMP, told The New Indian Express, "We will present the reports before the government for further reference. We have already decided to send samples for tests every month. We will also display the reports in all these canteens every month to assure the public that the quality of food in these canteens is good."
BJP corporator Umesh Shetty has meanwhile rubbished the report of Dasappa Hospital."First of all, Dasappa Hospital has no facility to test food quality. It only has a facility to test vegetables. Also, the food quality has to be tested by conducting surprise visits to these canteens, not by sending samples that are prepared to get the positive results. The report could be biased," he said.