The Food Safety wing has directed all restaurants and eateries in the State to avoid serving mayonnaise made using raw eggs as the accompaniment to various dishes.
Restaurants and eateries can, however, serve the eggless version of mayonnaise or mayonnaise made using pasteurised eggs.
A consensus on this was arrived at in the interest of food safety, at a meeting of the representatives of hotels, restaurants, wayside eateries, bakeries and catering firms called by Health Minister Veena George here on Wednesday.
Mayonnaise, an emulsion of raw eggs and oil, is served as an accompaniment to many dishes, especially dishes of Arabic origin and has been incriminated in many recent episodes of food-borne illnesses in Kerala. Unless pasterurised, eggs carry the risk of harbouring salmonella bacteria and when used raw and in hot and humid weather, the bacteria can multiply in food, triggering food poisoning episodes.
The Health department put forth the condition that eateries start affixing a label on food parcels, indicating the time of packing and the duration within which it should be consumed.
The Health Minister directed that all food outlets comply with the mandatory licence/registration requirement of the Food Safety wing. All food business outlets should cooperate with the hygiene rating initiative of the Food Safety wing.
Ms. George said that hygiene rating should be seen by all eateries as an opportunity to showcase the hygiene and food safety standards each institution maintained.
All outlets should display the toll-free number of the Food Safety wing. All employees should have medical fitness certificates and receive training provided by the department.
The representatives of food outlets, while promising to cooperate with authorities, said that they themselves would set up inspection teams to correct all deficiencies in the sector and ensure food safety
The Commissioner of Food Safety and the Principal Secretary (Health) were also present.
