Food Safety officials continued >raids of hotels in cities and towns across Kerala State on the second day on Wednesday for detection of low quality food items.
Altogether 11 hotels were ordered to be closed and 150 hotels were served notices seeking improvement in quality and standards. The raids covered 211 hotels on Tuesday and 60 hotels on Wednesday (till evening).
The raids come in the wake of the death of a youth in Bangalore allegedly after he consumed ‘shawarma’ from a hotel in Thiruvananthapuram.
The hotels ordered to be closed (after giving improvement notices) in Thiruvananthapuram were Hotel Meena, Hotel Lekshmi and Hotel Devi at the General Hospital junction and Hotel Radhakrishna at Medical College Junction and Hotel Coffee Bar on the Chalakuzhi Road. In Kollam, Hotel Hot Chix and in Pathanamthitta, Hotel Remya near the police station were asked to be closed.
The Cochin Tourist Corporation Bar Hotel near South Railway Station (Hotel Nalanda), Hotel Rollex near KSRTC bus stand and Hotel Gaza Taste at Palarivattom in Kochi were also closed. In Thrissur, Hotel Royal Plaza was shut down.
Health Minister V. S. Sivakumar told a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram that the Food Safety and Standards Act would be enforced strongly in the State.
The Minister recalled that the Act which covered hotels, bakeries and distributors of raw food items had come into effect in August last year. Establishments within the purview of the Act were required to follow norms and those who failed to do so would not be allowed to function.
Mr. Sivakumar said that Act provided for payment of compensation in case of harm from food poisoning. In case of death from food poisoning, the owner of the establishment that supplied the food item would be liable to pay a compensation of up to Rs. 5 lakh to the next of kin. In case of poisoning that could be fatal, the compensation can go up to Rs. 3 lakh. In other cases, it would be up to Rs. 1 lakh.
He said that the customers should demand and keep bills from hotels, as these could be important evidence for preferring the claim. District level food safety officers should be contacted on the toll free number 1800 425 1125 in case of food poisoning.
The Minister said that the government had organised more than 3,000 awareness classes on the Act since August last year. Hundreds of establishments were issued improvement notices as the law was new. Those hotels that failed to comply with the norms would be closed down.
He said that higher officials had left for Bangalore for collection of evidence in the case relating to the death of the youth in Bangalore.
