DHO asks hotels not to pack hot food in plastic covers

Mangaluru DHO warns against using plastic covers for hot food, emphasizes hygiene and safety in eateries.

Dakshina Kannada District Health and Family Welfare Officer (DHO) H.R. Thimmaiah on Friday, April 12, asked hotels, restaurants, and other eateries not to use plastic covers to pack hot food while preparing parcels for consumers.

Addressing presspersons, the DHO said that consuming hot food, such as sambar and other food products, packed in plastic covers is dangerous to health. Often consumption of such food might lead to cancer, he said.

The doctor said that as per the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), plastic covers should not be used for packing hot and other food. The Food Safety Officer will initiate legal action against such hotels and eateries if found packing and parcelling food in plastic covers.

The DHO asked hotels to serve hot water to consumers and ensure that hygiene is maintained while preparing and serving food. Hotels should get the health of food servers checked for every six months, he said.

Dr. Thimmaiah said that eateries and hotels should dip utensils in hot water before serving food to consumers.

The DHO said that hostels and paying guest accommodations should not serve stale food to students and occupants.

Referring to as many as 137 persons falling ill after consuming tender coconut water at a tender coconut processing unit at Adyar, on the outskirts of the city on April 8, he said that the department collected 15 litres of the tender coconut water as sample and five samples of the water used at the unit on April 10 and has sent them for analysis to Bengaluru. The bio-chemical, bacterial and chemical analysis of the samples will be done, he said.