Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 16 (PTI) Kerala Minister K Muraleedharan on Sunday said food safety inspections had been intensified across the state ahead of Onam.
The state health minister said the Food Safety Department formed special squads on July 27 as part of its Onam food safety drive.
“The Food Safety Department has conducted 5,016 inspections across the state. Following the detection of violations, 705 notices were issued, and recommendations for imposing fines were issued against 390 food establishments,” Muraleedharan said.
The department collected 623 statutory samples and 1,899 surveillance samples for testing.
“Special attention is being given to the quality of food products widely used during Onam, including pappad. Officials are checking label details, manufacturing and expiry dates, batch numbers, licence details, declarations of ingredients and other statutory labelling requirements,” the minister said.
Samples of major raw materials such as jaggery, coconut oil and ghee had been collected and sent to laboratories for testing, Muraleedharan said.
He said inspections had also been intensified at hotels, restaurants, catering establishments and cloud kitchens.
Special checks were being conducted at food businesses supplying Onam sadhya and other food packages through online platforms to ensure compliance with food safety standards, the statement said.
The department was primarily focusing on hygiene in food preparation, packing, storage and distribution, temperature control, the use of safe raw materials and proper labelling of food products, he said.
“Inspections at distribution centres of online purchasing platforms will also be strengthened. The quality of raw materials and packaged food products stored there, storage conditions, expired or damaged products, labelling and batch details are being checked,” the minister said.
Officials said that as part of the Eat Right Kerala-Safe Onam initiative, special classes were organised in all 14 districts for hotel and catering operators, bakery owners and other food entrepreneurs.
Training and awareness programmes were conducted on food safety and hygiene standards to be followed while preparing, handling, storing and distributing food, the statement added. PTI TBA TBA SSK
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