Chennai’s Vadapalani temple food shop sealed – Times of India

Chennai News

CHENNAI: Food safety officials on Wednesday sealed a food shop at Arulmigu Vadapalani Andavar Temple in Chennai and suspended its licence after they found that snacks and sweets sold as ‘prasadam’ on the premises were manufactured under unhygienic conditions by a manufacturer without the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) licence.
The food safety authority had received complaints about the poor quality of food, including ladoos, murukus and thattai vadais, sold on temple premises.
“When we went there for inspection this morning, we found that the products were sold in packets that did not have basic details such as date of manufacture and date of expiry,” said Chennai’s designated food safety officer Dr P Satheesh Kumar.
It is mandatory for all food products to have details such as manufacture and expiry dates.
Further inquiries revealed that the shop owner sourced the food from another person in the neighbourhood. “The temple kitchen, which has FSSAI licence, makes food that is offered to god. But this shop sold food sourced from another kitchen. Since he has called it prasadam, many people bought it,” he said.
Officials then raided the kitchen at Sastri Nagar in Vadapalani, where the snacks were being prepared. The manufacturer does not hold mandatory permission for making and selling these products.
“The products and ingredients he used were substandard. For instance, he used non-iodised salt that is used for preservation,” Dr Satheesh said.
The health condition of the staff working the kitchen was not available as they had not undergone the mandatory tests for various infectious diseases. The kitchen was sealed and a case was booked against the manufacturer for violation of food safety norms.
The samples picked from the kitchen and the shop were sent to a food lab for chemical analysis. “If the lab finds these products unfit for human consumption, cases will be altered as criminal cases,” he said.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/chennais-vadapalani-temple-food-shop-sealed/articleshow/90397861.cms