CHENNAI: State Food Safety Department officials on Tuesday temporarily cancelled the kitchen license of Murugan Idli Kadai after finding that the kitchen was "not hygienic."
Speaking to Express, a food safety official, Tiruvallur district said, "The food is being supplied from the kitchen to around 23 outlets of Murugan Idli Kadai. We inspected the area and found problems with the
functioning of the kitchen. We gave 50 days time to rectify them. But, they failed to do. Again we issued Show Cause Notice, but they didn't rectify then too. So we cancelled the license temporarily. If they
rectify those defects, we will revoke the cancellation of license after inspection".
The main hygienic issues in the kitchen listed by the officials are broken flooring, lack of proper maintenance of washing area, improper handling of packing items and not maintaining temperature in storage coolers.
Meanwhile, the officials also issued notice to Murugan Idli Kadai outlet at Parrys based on a complaint. The complainant T R Prabhakaran said, "I went to Murugan Idli Kadai outlet on Friday and ordered for
meals. While eating, I found a worm in the rice. When asked about it, an in-charge of the outlet said, the food was not prepared there and it was brought from the kitchen at Ambattur. So, the worm would have
entered the food while on transit. Then I filed a complaint with the Food Safety Department through their Whats App complaint number."
Following the complaint, the officials inspected the outlet at Parry's and issued notice. "We found that the workers had no medical certificates, also periodical pest control is not done. There were
also other faults. So we issued notice," said a Food Safety Official, Chennai district.