Food Safety Cell officials to conduct suprise checks at roadside stalls

kolkata: The state Food Safety Cell will launch checking drives at the road side stalls and shops to improve the quality of the medium of cooking.

The cell has received complaints that many shops selling "singara", "kachuri" and "telebhaja" are using stale oil for several days. The officials of the cell will make surprise checks and the licences of the shops may be cancelled if inferior quality of oil is found to be used to prepare the mouth watering items. It has been decided that the same oil can not be used for more than twice to make the food items.

Thousands of people take singara, kachuri, vegetable and egg shops and telebhaja from the shops most of whom are situated in north Kolkata. In the areas surrounding Bagbazar, Shyambazar and Hatibagan continue to cater to people with traditional food items.

A senior official of Kolkata Municipal Corporation ( KMC) said hundreds of people visiting the city daily take these food items and so it is mandatory to maintain the quality of the oil. Poor quality oil leads to stomach related problems like ameobiasis. He said two years ago the KMC had conducted a study on the quality of water that was being used in the road side stalls along with the Institute of Hygiene and Public Health. The food vendors were given training following which they started using KMC water.