Cleanliness, basic norm for city hotels, restaurants

By Ranil WIJAYAPALA

Omar Kamil giving away a special prize

Continental Hotel Receiving Grade

Galle Face Hotel receiving a Grade A

Thousands of food outlets, star class hotels and restaurants are scattered in the Colombo city to cater to the people who reside to visit the city on a daily basis. But, people are unaware whether they are actually consuming hygienic food either from the star class hotels or the wayside eateries.

They have no access to many of the kitchens of these star class hotels and restaurants to check the cleanliness of the food they consume in the neatly laid tables of these hotels.

The only authority which can inspect these kitchens, is Food Inspectors and the Public Health Inspectors of the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC).

In a bid to give an idea about the cleanliness of the city hotels, restaurants and food outlets the CMC Public Health Department has started a programme to grade city hotels restaurants and other food outlets in terms of cleanliness hygienic standards of their kitchens.

Explaining the grading criteria the Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Pradeep Kariyawasam told the Sunday Observer that they initially issue the H-800 form to evaluate the conditions prevailing in hotels and restaurants.

Cleanliness, utensils used in the kitchen, garbage clearance, water supply and pest control will also be gone into, he said.

The Health Inspectors visit the locations and give marks for their performance. After the medical officer himself check the kitchen the hotel operators are asked to submit food samples for laboratory tests.

"Earlier we had only one test. Now we have facilities to check various other factors as our laboratories are upgraded", he said.

"You can't use tube well water in Colombo because the underground water is polluted. Unless you dig very deep the prospects are bleak, Dr. Kariyawasam added.

On the other hand, the Medical Officers also check workers' health.

"We are asking the hoteliers to send all kitchen employees and those serving food for to be checked by the medical officer. We check them specially for hepatitis", Dr. Kariyawasam added.

"We found large numbers of people had hepatitis in their lifetime unknown to them. The real danger is that some of them could be the vectors, he added.

"I remember sometimes ago in a five star hotel a large number of food handlers were afflicted with hepatitis. We came to know about it from a petition sent by an employee himself. The hotel had its own medical officer who should have informed us about it," he said.

We can immunise the employees against hepatitis.

The Colombo Municipal Council's Public Health Department inspected more than 400 hotels and restaurants in the city, during its grading programme.

"This year most of the hotels failed to send their food samples. We considered only those who gave us samples under special category. For the others like in the past we gave Grade A and Grade B, according to the normal practices", he added.

They have to produce water samples to obtain the licence. Earlier they sued to produce food samples. Now our food inspectors go there and bring the food samples, he said.

The CMC awarded B Grade for 52 restaurants and hotels in the city and 44, A grade.

The Colombo Hilton Hotel was adjudged to have the most hygienic kitchen in the city of Colombo", he added.

The B and A Grade hotels and restaurants received their awards at a function held at Hotel Hilton on last Wednesday.

The Secretary to the Ministry of Health Dr. Ravindra Ruberu and Special Commissioner of the Colombo Municipal Council, Omar Kamil were special guests on the occasion.

I would say most of the star class hotels are really good, Dr. kariyawasam said.

"Now we have something like 'benchmark'. Even the smaller hotels are keen to get their grading", he added.

There are about 1,400 food outlets, out of which 1,000 are housed in permanent buildings.

"Legally we can issue license to 500 to 600 food outlets. They should have their building plans approved. Many people do not have building approval for their hotels. Therefore, we can't issue licences for such hotels". Dr. Kariyawasam added.

"We can only recommend that the premises is clean. We don't prosecute them because it is the duty of the Municipal Treasurer to do so, he added.

Following are the Restaurants, Bakeries and other Food Outlets which received awards from Public Health Department of the Colombo Municipal Council:

Awards

Most Hygienic kitchen in the city of Colombo and the best hotel - Hilton Hotel.

Best Hotels - Cinnamon Lake Side, Colombo 2 and Cinnamon Grade Hotel, Colombo 2.

Best Vegetarian Food Outlet in the City - Sri Suryas Hotel, Colombo 11.

Model Food Outlet of the City - Urban Kitchen Restaurant, Hyde Park Corner.

Best Fast Food Outlets in the City - Gamma Pizzacraft Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. Union Place, Colombo 2, French Restaurant, Odel complex, Colombo 7, McDonalds, Abans Restaurants Systems (Pvt) Ltd, Colombo 8, McDonalds, Abans Restaurants Systems (Pvt) Ltd, Colombo 3

Best Snack Bar - Roots Global (Pvt) Ltd 4 - 1 A Majestic Food Court, Colombo 4.

Best Restaurant - Unilever (Ltd) Restaurant, Grand Pass, Colombo 14, Flag & Whistle Restaurant, Srimath Ramanathan Mawatha, Colombo 15, Cocoverendar Cafe, Ward Place, Colombo 7, Jack Tree Restaurant, Fife Road, Colombo 5, Dinemore Restaurant (Pvt) Ltd, Kumarathunga Munidasa Mawatha, Colombo 3.

Best Bakery - Little Lions Associates (Pvt) Ltd., Vivekananda Mawatha, Colombo 13, Perera & Sons Bakery, Jampettah Street, Colombo 13,

Keels Super Crescat Bakery, Kollupitiya Road, Colombo 3, Fab Food (Pvt) Ltd., Galle Road, Colombo 3.