Kolkata, Sep 6 (PTI) Enforcement branch officials of the West Bengal government on Sunday raided various restaurants and eateries across the state to check whether food safety rules and guidelines are being followed.
Several well-known restaurants in the upmarket Park Street area of Kolkata also faced checks by enforcement branch teams, who conducted a thorough inspection of the kitchens, officials said.
“Such visits to all these places where food items are sold will continue,” said a government official in Jalpaiguri district.
Soon after a prodding by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari at the inauguration of Consumer Safety Week on September 1, the Enforcement branch and other government officials of the state promptly undertook visits to eateries, starting from expensive dine-ins to roadside shacks to check maintenance of food safety guidelines.
Adhikari said the state government is taking action against food adulteration and the use of non-food-grade colour in consumables and sweets, urging that business must be done in a transparent and clean manner.
Stating that some officials might have been complicit in allowing the unfair practices, the chief minister lamented, “The whole system has become rotten.” Officials were seen at eateries from Kanthi in the southernmost part of the state to Jalpaiguri in the north, working full steam on a Sunday to check whether all regulations are being followed, from pest control to ensuring that stale food was not being sold to unsuspecting customers.
Some of the big names on Kolkata’s gastronomic map have faced action from the officials for various reasons, ranging from using poor-quality oil and poor hygiene to stocking fish and meat well past their expiry dates. PTI AMR RG
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