The Food Safety wing conducted widespread checks across the State, focussing on food outlets selling shawarma, to check if the norms issued by the department regarding the safe preparation of shawarma were being followed.
On Saturday, 88 special squads of the Food Safety wing conducted inspections in 1,287 food outlets selling shawarma, following which, the sale of shawarma was stopped in 148 outlets.
The department also issued rectification notices to 178 outlets and compounding notices to 308 outlets. Action was also taken against 146 outlets which failed to follow the guidelines on the preparation of mayonnaise served along with the shawarma.
It was on Tuesday, while hearing a writ petition filed by the mother of a young victim of food poisoning at Kasaragod in 2022, that the Kerala High Court directed the Food Safety department to ensure that all guidelines it had issued earlier on the safe preparation of shawarma and mayonnaise were being followed by all food outlets.
Girl’s death in 2022
Following the death of the girl in 2022, the Food safety department had issued detailed guidelines on the safe preparation of shawarma and the mayonnaise, to be mandatorily followed by all food joints.
The court had also directed that all eateries in the State be asked to affix labels on food parcels, indicating the date and time of preparation and the “eaten-best-before” date. These checks should be carried out on a regular basis, the court had insisted.
Guidelines
The Health department’s guidelines say that apart from ensuring cleanliness and hygiene in the cooking area, the shawarma cones should not be left exposed to air and dust.
The temperature of the freezer should be necessarily maintained at 4 degrees Celsius and the temperature monitoring record should be maintained in the shop. The bread used for shawarma should not be stale and the meat sliced off the shawarma cone should be grilled or baked again to ensure its doneness.
Only pasteurised eggs should be used for making mayonnaise and freshly prepared mayonnaise should not be kept at room temperature for more than two hours.
The shawarma parcels should have the label that it is to be consumed within an hour of preparation. Food handlers should have medical fitness certificate and all food outlets should have FSSAI licence.
Inspections will continue and legal measures will be taken against those who fail to observe the guidelines in the preparation of shawarma, Health department said.
