How clean and safe are the food items served in the capital city’s restaurants and eateries? 2012 provided the answer.
Serious questions began to be raised about the quality of food served in restaurants after an IT professional died reportedly after consuming ‘shawarma’ bought from a popular food joint. Controversy tagged both small-time eateries and high-profile fast food joints alike in 2012.
Bakery chain Ambrosia was ordered to down shutters after a customer complained of finding a dead cockroach in a choco muffin.
Fast food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), which opened its first outlet in Thiruvananthapuram in 2012, landed in the soup after a customer complained of finding live worms crawling out of a chicken delicacy.
A smaller vegetarian restaurant at Fort had to down shutters after a hapless customer discovered a dead centipede in the ‘masala dosa’ served her.
With complaints pouring in, food safety officials also were forced to get their act together.
A large number of small and big restaurants - including the Indian Coffee House at Thampanoor - were ordered to shut down or slapped with improvement notices for operating in unhygienic conditions.
This also led to stiff protests by the hotel and restaurant operators.
They took to the warpath blaming the government for hasty and uncalled-for action.