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| Sunday, 25 January 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Atrociously unhygienic conditions: Seeing stars in star-class restaurant kitchens by Shanika Sriyananda For some, eating out is a break from slaving in the kitchen. For others, it is an everyday occurrence. Whatever the reason, eating out or getting your lunch or dinner ordered from out has become a modern day convenience offering an enticing array of dishes ranging from authentic Sri Lankan to Chinese, Indian, Italian, Mongolian, Thai and a whole lot more. The 'Sunday Observer', which last week visited some restaurants in and around Colombo city discovered 'clean kitchens' to be a rare exception. Restaurants kitchens were filled with dust with leftovers that were several days old piled up near the garbage bin emitting an unbearable odour. Others had filthy drains and overflowing workers' toilets. In some other restaurants, food long past the disposal stage was stored in rickety old fridges that did not even have the required temperature to preserve vegetables, fruits, let alone meat and fish. Cooked rice was discovered side by side with raw meat in the same fridge. Many of the kitchens do not have even a piece of soap for washing hands and kitchen utensils. Kitchen staff, sweating from head to toe due to the unbearable heat, were seen wiping away their sweat with their hands, and continuing to cook! We were not permitted entry to the kitchens of some leading restaurants as the doors were open only to 'staff members', however, our investigations revealed that the quality of food sold in Colombo leaves much to be desired. It is best to rely on home-made meals if one is to avoid food poisoning and other stomach ailments. According to Dr. Pradeep Kariyawasm, Chief Medical Officer of Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) there is no difference among most of the kitchens of eating houses in Colombo City when it comes to cleanliness. All are equally unhygienic. "Whether it is a kitchen of a five-star hotel or a normal 'bath kade', the state of the kitchen is the same", said Dr. Kariyawasam who labelled the kitchens of some of the fives star hotels as 'filthy dens', few years ago and ordered them closure and initiated legal proceedings. Around 1,560 eating houses are registered with the CMC. But according to Dr. Kariyawasam only 450 are qualified to be licensed. " The food in the rest of the places are not of proper hygienic quality", he said, adding that the CMC cannot close them down as large numbers of people depend on the business. However, the CMC help them to improve the condition. A handful of eating places have improved the quality of their kitchens, but many places are still in the same filthy state, said Dr. Kariyawasam. "I have been to many restaurants including some leading ones, and I have found them to be in very poor condition. If people see those kitchens they will never come back for a meal", he added. "Prior to my being appointed Chief Medical Officer, the officials checked only the small restaurants, but not the leading five stars and leading eating houses. Three years ago, I started checking these five stars and I saw stars when I entered their kitchens. Every thing other than the kitchen was glittering and nice but the environment in the kitchens was no different to those of the ordinary 'bath kades'. The only difference was that these were large 'bath kades'," he said. According to Dr. Kariyawasam, in many of the 5-star kitchens there was no soap for the staff to wash their hands compelling them to move from rice to meat curry to vegetable and fruit salads without washing their hands properly. " Some of them wash their hands before coming into the kitchen, but not while working. It is important to wash your hand when making salads, which is one of the a major causes of food poisoning", he said. All eating houses which cook or prepare tea within the Colombo city limits have to obtain a licence from the CMC and snack bars have to obtain snack bar licences also from the CMC. According to Dr. Kariyawasam, basic requirements should be fulfilled to qualify for a licence. These includes, minimum 120 square feet floor area for kitchen, 120 square feet floor area for dining rooms, 7 feet minimum height walls, ventilation, and good hygienic conditions. An adequate number of toilets for customers and workers separately is also an essential requirement with no toilet door facing the kitchen. The cooking staff should be clean and should undergo annual medical checkups. "Though it is not compulsory, blood and stools tests are another requirement", he said adding that new guidelines for eating places would be introduced before the end of this month to give more teeth to the CMC. The existing guidelines are more than 60 years old. Recently, the CMC health Inspectors busted a racket in some leading hotels, restaurants and supermarkets involving the purchase storage and sale of food items were past the expiry date. Popular catering services including some 5-star hotels were detected to have been importing food items which are about to be discarded, at half the price. Hotel, restaurant and supermarket managers and storekeepers were reported to be involved in the racket", he claimed. According to Dr. Kariyawasam, the food and the kitchen environment in government institutions, hospitals, popular entertainment parks and schools are also of a very inferior quality. Canteens at the government institutions are run by the private sector contractors who have to get a licence from the CMC. "Cleanliness of canteens in government offices and hospitals are very poor and we have received several complaints about the poor quality food at the Colombo National Hospital", he claimed. But the states of school canteens have been improved under the Healthy School Project, he pointed out. The CMC investigations have discovered most food items in supermarkets to be expired products. "These food items do not have the date of expiry, only the 'best before' date. Food stuffs with 'Best before' can be bought for half the price and racketeers paste a new date of manufacture and new date of expiry. Consumers are ignorant about this", he said. Dr. Kariyawasam advised consumers to be vigilant and not buy foodstuffs with new labels pasted on the original label. " According to the law you cannot paste anything on the original label. The leading supermarkets oftenly paste a new label when the 'sell by' date has expired", he added. In a tough move to clean up the City kitchens, the CMC has also appointed six food inspectors at the Central Food Control Unit who are ready to raid any eating house within half an hour of receiving of a complaint. The hotline is 2676161. Fax: 2694937. |
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