Inspections draw mixed reactions

Although a welcome change, consumers have been alarmed by the kind of irregularities found at some noted restaurants.

Hyderabad: For over a month now, restaurants and food-related establishments have been inspected by a recently formed task force team by the Food Safety Department.

Although a welcome change, consumers have been alarmed by the kind of irregularities found at some noted restaurants.

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Analysing the pattern of these inspections, the authorities seem to be planning their visits area-wise. Along with restaurants and bakeries, warehouses and dairy manufacturing units have also been inspected. Major discrepancies have been found in the storage of food articles, with even insects spotted in rations at some places.

Basic hygiene standards were also not maintained in some places.

Environment of skepticism

Details of the inspections conducted are posted on the Commissioner of Food Safety, Telangana’s handle.

That said, this has also created an environment of skepticism toward the food establishments. The handle which made its first post on March 9 started off with creating awareness of registrations and certifications, which pivoted to sharing information about inspections. On April 17 came a string of posts about serious violations at popular restaurants in the upscale Jubilee Hills area. There are mixed reactions to these inspections both online and offline.

While some say this will motivate the food establishments to maintain safety standards, others question why other popular restaurants aren’t visited including street food stalls and cloud kitchens.

Also, so far the information we have is that the samples are sent to the labs for testing, the results of which aren’t available in the public domain.