KOCHI: The Health Department and the Food Safety Department conducted joint inspections in the district on Tuesday and served notice on 108 food outlets, including hotels, bakeries, catering units and snack bars, for lack of hygiene and selling stale food.
The officials have directed 84 hotels, ten bakeries, four snack bars, one catering unit and one soda-making unit to improve the quality of food and service.
“The food outlets face action primarily for conducting business in unhygienic conditions and for selling stale food. In certain cases, workers were found to be lacking proper hygiene. The premises of some of the eateries/food-making units are breeding grounds for mosquitoes,” said district medical officer Dr N K Kuttappan.
The officials inspected a total of 116 hotels, 16 catering units, 52 bakeries, 30 snack bars, three soda-making units, one ice-making unit and 25 other units that either make or sell food products.
As many as 21 squads, led by additional DMOs Dr V Jayashri and Dr Balagangadharan, participated in the inspection. The Health Department had deployed six programme officers, one medical officer, eight health supervisors, 19 health inspectors, 42 junior health inspectors and three public health nurses for the task. Four employees of the Food Safety Department also took part in the inspection.