Unhygienic food at 1,584 outlets destroyed

Nadira GUNATILLEKE

Unhygienic food available at 1,584 private institutions were destroyed by the Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry Public Health Unit following a two day countrywide raid last week to nab factories shops and hotels offering unhygienic food.

The Unit also filed cases against 314 shops and hotels selling food not suitable for consumption, Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry sources said.

The sources said food samples from another 266 shops/hotels have been sent for testing. The total number of institutions subjected to this two day raid is 26,989.

A total of 1,600 participated in the raid which included PHIs, food officers and officials in MOH areas.

During the raid, officials discovered that some shops store raw meat and ice cream together in the same refrigerator which is unhygienic and a violation of rules. They also discovered some fastfood outlets selling old fastfood by heating them.

Officials also found some outlets using oil several times to fry fastfood.

Some food in refrigerators had passed expiry dates while some items did not have expiry dates.