Food poisoning

Some 150 employees at a factory in the Biyagama FTZ had taken ill after partaking of a 'special' Tuesday meal of Chicken Koththu provided by the Company. They were admitted to hospital with bouts of vomiting diarrhea and abdominal pains etc.

Cases of food poisoning have become all too frequent in the recent past. But these incidents are soon forgotten after the initial media publicity. Nobody is held responsible and life goes on. Therefore the time has arrived for a deeper study of the phenomenon and remedial action taken.

This is not the first time that FTZ employees and those of other workplaces had fallen victim to mass food poisoning. It was only recently that some students of a school in a rural outpost had to be admitted to hospital after consuming their school midday meal which was found to be contaminated. There was even a well publicized death of a schoolgirl as a result of food poisoning. The situation warrants serious attention by the concerned authorities.

They should take a deeper look at this issue and ensure that factory employees and school children are not placed at risk in this fashion. Food poisoning of such a large scale certainly is a recent phenomenon. There may be many reasons for this. But there is no doubt that the profiteering is the key. Caterers today don't give a damn. Items such as vegetables are often collected from discarded heaps in the Pettah at no cost by these unscrupulous elements. Also little attention to quality is paid during mass cooking.

Certain companies contract outside catering services to provide meals to their staff through the office canteens. There is no knowing under what conditions the food is prepared. Invariably most of the remnants are recycled so that stale food that ought to be discarded find their way back to the canteens the next day.

Today the pressure of work has compelled most of the working population to have their meals outside. Thus it is roaring business for hoteliers and caterers. They hardly have the time nor the inclination to consider quality. Of course the victims are mostly the average worker who cannot afford the luxury of eating at posh joints where more attention is paid to quality.

It is not just the factories and establishments. Today most hotels and eateries in the city are guilty of providing substandard food to their customers. Most of these eateries are sited in the most unhealthy and unhygienic locations most often in the vicinity of public toilets especially in the Pettah area. The ordinary labourer has no choice but to patronize these joints for economic reasons and fall prey to the germs and bacteria that flourish in these eateries.

Action should be taken to remove all food outlets that do not conform to laid-down guidelines pertaining to hygiene. Regular checks should be carried out on kitchens of these hotels and eateries. This is because most of them are an eyesore made worse by sweat streaming cooks and helpers working bare-bodied, adding to the pollution.

Checks should also be carried out on wayside booths and shacks catering to the working class. Most of these are operating near drains or unhygienic locations.

Of course the food industry too, like all the others, is affected by the open economy with the supply having to keep pace with the ever increasing demand. And like many things in the open economy all scruples go out of the window in the case of food supply business. Today there are even complaints as regards quality even against the big names in the food industry not to mention ingestion of artificial agents into food that are injurious to the health. There have been fingers pointed at some of the big food chains too in this regard in the recent past.

Hence an overall policy is needed to regulate the food industry so that the unsuspecting public would not fall prey to various advertising gimmicks and undergo risks to their health by consuming contaminated food.

Above all special tabs should be kept on food catering businesses to ensure the general public would not be placed at risk from food poisoning.