What food safety officials discovered in Bengaluru’s luxury hotels over the past week strips away the notion that fine dining and hygiene are synonymous. Rotten meat, expired dairy and bakery products and mouldy vegetables were found in five- and three-star restaurants. The 30 teams deployed by Karnataka’s Food Safety and Drug Administration (FDA) to inspect 60 hotels in the state capital seized 640 kg of meat, chicken and fish, 276 kg of vegetables, 49 litres of used oil, and large amounts of cereals, milk products and sauces past their use-by dates. Other serious violations included unhygienic storage, inadequate segregation of vegetarian and non-vegetarian items and wrong labelling. Officials sent at least 77 samples for testing and destroyed over a tonne of foodstuff. Supply centres were inspected, kitchens shut, licences suspended and notices issued.
Big brands like Taj Hotels, Shangri-La and Atria were caught in the net, leaving their regular patrons with uncomfortable questions about what their meals might have contained. The raids exposed dangerous cost-cutting methods adopted in kitchens presumed to be serving the finest and freshest dishes. They also exposed dishonesty in the management of upper-crust hotels, whose exorbitant prices make the betrayal even more difficult to digest. It is baffling that well-known restaurants do not have strict procurement and monitoring systems, or regular quality checks. The industry is trying to pass off the raids as unwarranted, with arguments on shelf-life under certain temperatures. Whether that or reliance on quick-commerce led to the slack practices, rotten food is unacceptable.
Similar drives are being conducted in other states, too. Maharashtra’s FDA has cracked down on restaurants, bakeries, dairies and canteens—including at the high court, secretariat and IIT—and suspended some licences over handling and storage. Inspections have also begun at warehouses of online retailers Amazon and Blinkit. Gujarat, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh have banned cheaper imitations of paneer, cheese and butter.
It is worrying that these are not isolated cases. When luxury restaurants violate the rulebook, it’s harsh to point the finger at smaller restaurants. But star hotel or street vendor, this is a serious matter about health and trust. When the voice of Indian consumers, who are largely unaware of their own rights, is treated as insignificant, strict food safety checks are an imperative. Let’s make a healthy habit of it.