When lizards are served free of charge:

Unwelcome insect cuisine

Aditha Dissanayake

Yes. You have heard this joke already. Not once but a million times. There was this man in a restaurant and he said to the waiter, “What’s this fly doing in my soup?” And the waiter replied, “Don’t worry sir, there is no extra charge.” But what happens when the fly is not a fly, but a lizard and the soup happens to be, not soup but parippu? And the joke is not a joke, but a real life incident? What did the waiter say when he saw the lizard? Nothing. Because the customer did not call the waiter. Instead, he made his way from Richmond Hill to the Galle Municipal Council and tipped two Public Health Officers who raided the hotel, and took the proprietor to court where he was fined Rs 6,000.

“The sentence was too light,” says Ravi Masakorala, Hotelier with over twenty years experience in the hotel industry who believes negligence and ignorance when preparing food for customers are unpardonable crimes. “Every institute that serves food should maintain strict hygienic standards. Chefs are like doctors and kitchens should be as clean and sterile as operating theatres.”

So, if you belong to the ignorance-is-bliss camp, when it comes to restaurant dining, you may stop reading now - what follows might well be stomach churning. For, according to Masakorala, regardless of how plush and inviting the restaurant in which you choose to eat may appear, the reality is that you are extremely unlikely to see the kitchen or have any knowledge of what goes on behind those ‘staff only’ doors. If you do get the chance to catch a glimpse you might notice the hygiene - or rather the lack of it - behind the kitchen doors can take several forms.

It can take the form of the kitchen not being cleaned properly and dirt, mouse droppings or simple stale and congealed food found in abundance. It could mean unclean prep surfaces, which can allow for dangerous cross-contamination between, say, raw meat and fruit. It can take the form of food not being stored properly or under the wrong temperatures which could lead to bacteria infesting. Or it could be that the staff does not observe personal hygiene procedures like washing their hands as often as required putting diners at risk for contagion of norovirus or salmonella.

Over to the authorities: the ones who have drawn standards, set the bar,kept the stable doors shut. Deputy Director General, Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI) Dr Priyadarshini Talgaswatte, says when it comes to food safety the institute maintains a ‘proactive approach’.

What’s in a name if it tastes the same?

Believing in detection is better than prevention the SLSI issues certificates to institutes engaged in the food industry that adhere to food safety standards which range from the basic standards set for small or micro level enterprises called Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) to Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), to ISO 22000. “When the SLSI issues a certificate to a hotel or a restaurant it means that the institute in question maintains a system that controls the chemical, physical and biological hazards encountered during the production processes of the food item, to make the food safe for human consumption,” explains Dr Talgaswatte.

Food safety standards that should be met by most hotels include not keeping the buffet open for more than four hours, maintaining a temperature of 80C when cooking, and once finished not exposing the food to the ‘danger zone’ i.e 5C to 63C, using hot holding dishes and chafing dishes to keep the food on the buffet table hot and making sure the staff is suitably attired while handling the food. “The staff should wear masks, gloves, have their heads covered and should not wear rings or gem studded pendants while they are at work.”

“Not bad” is the verdict Dr Pradeep Kariyawasam, Chief Medical Officer of the Colombo Municipal Council, gives when asked to comment on the current situation of the hotels, restaurants and fast food outlets in Colombo.

“Compared to how things were ten years ago, things have vastly improved,” says Dr Kariyawasam.

“When he had assumed office ten years ago he had noticed there was almost no difference between the kitchens of the Bath kades and those in five star hotels with regard to hygiene standards.

The morning after: a roadside kottu stand.

“Some hotels did not even have basic washing facilities like soap in their kitchens. But things have gradually improved now and with the ownership of some hotels changing hands, 15 to 45 million has been spent on improving the kitchens.”

As a result Dr Kariyawasam says out of around 750 eating houses in the city 150 are perfectly safe for dining, while three hundred have received A or B grades given by the CMC.

This year he plans to issue plaques to food outlets that meet the food safety requirements of the CMC so that the customers will know if they are in safe hands when it comes to having a meal in a restaurant or hotel or a simple ‘Bath kade’ in Colombo.

Sighs of relief.

Especially when you get to know even those who clamour for impeccable standards like Masakorala, still dines out.

“You have got to eat,” he says. “It’s exciting to take chances, and look for the obvious signs - like flies or the colour of the cloth the waiter uses to wipe the table top. Still, no worries. We Sri Lankans have a very strong immunity system.”

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