Mandi, Shawarma under scanner after Kerala food poisioning surfaces

With mandi and shawarma gaining huge popularity among food lovers in recent times, scores of outlets offering them have come across the city

Hyderabad: The death of three young people in a span of eight months in Kerala due to food poisoning after consuming Arabic mandi style cooked food and shawarma has raised concerns on food safety and food hygiene practised by outlets serving them.

Reacting to the loss of the young lives to food poisoning after consuming mandi food and shawarma, co-chairman, National IMA, Covid Task Force and IMA past-president, Dr Rajeev Jayadevan on Sunday took to Twitter to make people aware on precautions needed to be taken by food joints and even by customers.

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“Locally made shawarma consists of a large conical block of meat (chicken) assembled elsewhere and brought to the site of delivery. It can be 2-3 feet tall, 1 foot wide, slow cooked by a heat source behind it, which means there is partially cooked meat deeper within. The meat gets shaved off from its outer (hot) surface, and served as a wrap along with salad and mayo made from raw eggs, garlic and oil,” Dr Rajeev said.

If the meat is already contaminated at the assembly point, it becomes an excellent culture medium for bacteria, especially the uncooked part. As the meat is assembled off site, there is no way for the customer to tell if it was done in hygienic conditions, or kept overnight after slow sales the previous day, he cautioned.

With mandi and shawarma gaining huge popularity among food lovers in recent times, scores of outlets offering them have come across the city.

Though food inspectors from local administration and health department do carry out checks on eateries, outlets with these cuisine as a highlight of their menu have mushroomed in large numbers making it difficult to regulate them.