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CMC to keep track of food outlets on hygiene

by Bharatha Malawaraarachchi

The Colombo city's bustling night life evident in the wake of the city illumination programme has drawn the Municipal health officials to focus their attention on food outlets and hotels including the five star type to ensure proper hygienic standards are maintained.

Chief Medical Officer of CMC Dr. Pradeep Kariyawasam told the Daily News that with this illumination programme, food outlets have mushroomed and more restaurants are kept open in the city.Therefore, there is a need to carry out surveillance on the hygienic condition of foods, he said. Earlier too, the Municipal Council conducted night raids on food outlets but not on a large scale.

" We don't want to discourage those running food outlets and hotels but we want to ensure the quality of food," Dr. Kariyawasam said. Officials plan to obtain food samples from those places are test them at the Municipal's special laboratory.

The Municipality has taken legal action against 35 hotels in the Fort area during the last month for serving unhygienic and contaminated food and half of them have been fined.

Chief Food Inspector S.M. Kathriarachchi said a separate programme will be implemented to inspect bread and milk brought to the city in the mornings as there are many complaints from the public.Recently, they destroyed 180 loaves of bread which were being transported in unhygienic conditions to one of the leading hospitals in Colombo.

Kathriarachchi said they receive threats from some owners of these food outlets and hotels when conducting inspections."

The Municipality also inspects school canteens and government institutions.

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