In a recent developmentthe Telangana Food Safety Department carried out inspections at 75 warehouses linked to major e-commerce platforms and local suppliers which resulted in issuing 32 improvement notices for safety lapses.
Surprise Safety Inspections Discovering ‘76 kg of Expired Articles and Misleading Labels
It appears that food safety officials have seized thousands of expired or improperly labelled food products, following this inspection.
This development sounds alarming as the officials have discarded several kilograms of stale or rotten items which raises the question on the consumer safety considering these brands.
Moving ahead, they have also collected the samples so that they can continue the further testing.
While talking about this inspection, the department said that they have conducted this surprise inspection for the warehouses associated with Zepto, Reliance JioMart, Blinkit, BigBasket, Zomato, Swiggy, Flipkart, Amazon, and various local units.
In this regard, the Commissioner of Food Safety, Telangana, wrote on X, “A special drive on warehouses of e-commerce platforms covering Zepto, RelianceJioMart, Blinkit, BigBasket, Zomato, Swiggy, Flipkart, Amazon and local units was conducted.”
Further, he has provided the details of the inspection in this X post, adding, “75 warehouses visited, 98 enforcement and 124 surveillance samples lifted. Seizures: 1,903 units of expired food or food articles, either misbranded or having misleading labels. Discards: 76 kg of expired articles, stale food, rotten vegetables.”
During these inspections, they have noted 32 improvements and notices were issued to the facilities that failed to meet food safety standards.
CFS Inspected Hotels On Highway
When it comes to the surprise food safety inspections, this is not the first time as the department inspected 12 outlets located along the highways in the state and suspended the license of one of them during the first week of November this year.
Moving ahead, the Commissioner of Food Safety wrote in his X post, “CFS Telangana taskforce in a major enforcement drive inspected 12 highway food outlets along NH-65 (Hyderabad-Vijayawada), NH-163 (Warangal-Hyderabad) & NH-44 (Kurnool-Hyderabad) covering Sangareddy, Warangal & Jogulamba Gadwal districts.”
They concluded that severe food safety violations were observed at one outlet, including unhygienic kitchens, rodent infestation, improperly stored food, clogged drains, and suspected use of synthetic colours.
The officials had suspended the hotel’s license noting, “Action taken against The Hotel NH-9 (The Palace Hotel): License suspended under the Food Safety & Standards Act, 2006. 107.5 kg of unsafe food (prawns, fish, chicken, paneer, gobi fry) was discarded on the spot. The FBO shall remain closed until issuance of final orders by the competent authority.”
“Other outlets, including Taj Palace Hotel, Athidhi 44 Drive-In, Lepakshi Restaurants in NH-44, Minerva, Vivera, Utsav & Orissa Dhaba in NH-65 found with poor hygiene, unlabeled food, expired ingredients & reuse of cooking oil. 7 samples lifted, and 8 improvement notices issued,” the officials noted.
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