BENGALURU: Many of us go to restaurants for our daily meals and tasty snacks. But is this food healthy and safe? Well, there is no one to check and answer that. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) health section, which conducted regular checks on eateries and stalls, has stopped such raids after the FSSAI Act came into effect. But FSSAI officials admitted that they do not conduct regular raids and checks, and act as per a calendar of events released by the Central government and on complaints.
The eateries and stalls have to be checked as doctors are receiving cases of children and adults suffering from food poisoning, gastroenteritis, water infection and other ailments. The need has also arisen after a 16-year-old girl died in Kasargod after eating a rotten shawarma from an eatery. A BBMP health official told TNIE, “The matter of checking eateries does not come under BBMP anymore. FSSAI handles it now. We get around 50 complaints a day and we ask people to contact FSSAI instead.
We only issue trade licences, while food licences are given by FSSAI.” He pointed out that people are not aware that they have to approach FSSAI and not BBMP. Because of this, cases of poor quality food and adulteration are high. While there is a lot of demand for juices, sodas and buttermilk during the day, chats, rolls, bhajjis, samosas, dosas and other such items are consumed more in the evening. A senior FSSAI official admitted, “We conduct checks for adulterated milk, infant food items, packed foods and beverages. We do not randomly go to stalls, pick up samples and test them.
If there is a complaint, we act upon it. Very few complaints come to us. There are instances of used oil and colouring agents being used to prepare food items. We are now creating awareness among all eateries on using healthy items. We understand that due to economic reasons, the quality is being compromised.” The FSSAI official said they focus on checks as per the calendar drawn by the central government. Depending on the season, they check mustard oil, sweets during festivals and food items.