City's food outlets under microscope ahead of CHOGM

by Carol Aloysius

The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) and Health Ministry are cracking down on all unhygienic food outlets in the city ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) on November 15.

Health Ministry sources said they had deployed several Food Inspectors from its Food Control Unit to visit all outlets serving food in the city of Colombo. "They have been empowered to make inspections at any time of the day and arrest errant vendors and owners selling food unfit for human consumption," a health official told the Sunday Observer.

He said the food outlets include star class hotels, restaurants, fast food outlets and bakeries. "The Inspectors will take into account the location of each food outlet, the processing of food, storing of food, preparation of food and source of water used. There are over 10,000 food outlets in the city itself and many of them, including some leading city hotels have been found to serve sub-standard food including adulterated fruit drinks, leading to various health disorders.

"We found cakes and shorteats that were stale or exposed to flies in popular city restaurants and Take Away outlets and many bakeries selling underweight and sub quality bread. If any customer finds a foreign object or develops diarrhoea after eating food from a certain hotel or restaurant, he or she should bring it to the notice of the nearest PHI", a Health Ministry spokesman said.

CMC sources said that special education programs were being conducted for food handlers on hygienic cooking and all food handlers should undergo medical tests by CMC authorities.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Public Health Inspectors Union All Island which concluded its first "Food Week" last Friday, said that of the 38,291 eateries islandwide which had been inspected during the week, 4,887 were found to be unsatisfactory and notices were served on 2,859 errant owners/managers. "We have taken legal action against 2,697 owners and received nearly Rs. 7 million by way of fines from the 1,258 cases", he said.