Watch what you eat here

FDA inspections in the last six months reveal unhygienic conditions, sub-standard food in city's five-star hotels and fast food outlets

Watch what you eat here

FDA inspections in the last six months reveal unhygienic conditions, sub-standard food in city's five-star hotels and fast food outlets

Been to Taj Blue Diamond in the recent past and spent Rs 400 plus taxes on a non-vegetarian starter?

Well if you're grumbling that the food quality was no better than your local restaurant where you could have had the same food at less than half the price, we'll tell you why. Inspections by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) in the last six months across five-star and posh hotels in the city have found that many food samples picked from these hotels were of sub-standard quality. In many cases, hotels were classified 'dirty' on various counts where hygiene was being inspected.

According to FDA officials, at least seven to eight hotels of five and four star ranking were found to violate norms of hygiene and food quality standards.

Among the list of offenders were hotels like Taj Blue Diamond, Hard Castle Restaurants or the franchise of global giant McDonalds that runs its outlets in Western India, Hotel Aurora Towers, Sun and Sand Hotel, and Hotel Fortune Jukaso Inn, among others.

Food samples
According to Sanjay Patil, joint commissioner of FDA Pune, the food samples drawn from Taj Blue Diamond were found to be of sub-standard quality. "Our officers had drawn few food samples like mustard oil, wheat pasta, corn etc and later it was found these samples were not of expected standard quality. Besides this, there were minor faults in hygiene too like kitchen, workers who prepare food or handle food items were not very clean,"
said Patil.

At a McDonald's franchise, samples of the frozen dessert taken were found to be sub-standard. "The fat percentage in the milk was very low. Even slim milk has a certain fat percentage but this sample didn't meet any standards," added Patil.

MiD DAY spoke to the food inspector investigating this case and he said the FDA would soon move for prosecution against the company.

"It is a standard procedure. Once the file is processed, we will move for legal action," said Patil.

At Viman Nagar's Fortune Inn Jukaso Hotel the samples of raw materials like paneer were found of sub-standard quality.

No license
In case of Hotel Aurora Towers, officials found that the FDA license required to run a kitchen wasn't obtained besides other problems. "They had old licenses from Cantonment board and didn't have a permit from us. We gave them some period to complete the formalities. Besides, there were other issues like prepared food was kept uncovered, medical reports of workers weren't available," said the food inspector.

Dirty hands
At Hotel Sun N Sand, the issue was that of hygiene. "The hygiene of the kitchen and storage facility of food wasn't maintained as per their ranking standards. Workers were not in clean uniforms, and their personal hygiene was not upto the mark," said the inspector.

Patil added notices of these inspections have also been sent to the civic authorities.