COIMBATORE: Following a complaint by students about pests in the food items served to hostel students, the food safety department has issued an improvement notice to a private arts and science college in Nava India, to ensure hygienic food practices at its hostel kitchen. Meanwhile, the kitchen was temporarily banned for operations.
The food safety department received a complaint on Monday after students found a pest in the meal served at the hostel of the private college. However, no sample was collected as the management destroyed the food. Meanwhile, the students again raised the same issue on Wednesday and held a protest at the campus. Following this, the food safety department held an inspection at the hostel mess and the kitchen, where they allegedly found a list of violations against hygienic food practices.
According to Dr T Anuradha, designated officer of the Food Safety Department, Coimbatore, an improvement notice was issued under Section 32 of the Food Safety and Standards Act for failing to follow safety rules. The written notice states the specific failures, required corrective steps and gives a time limit of at least 15 days to fix them. They were ordered to fix the issues, she said.
Meanwhile, the college declared holidays for the hostel from Friday to Tuesday, said sources.
The engineering college run by the same management near Malumichampatti has also faced a similar issue earlier. The food safety department has taken similar steps, and the infrastructure is under renovation, said sources from the department.
