No stalemate around stale meat

Earlier this week, Tamil Nadu had topped the State Food Safety Index for 2022. It emerged as the numero uno among 17 large States, with a score of 82, blazing past Gujarat (77.5), Maharashtra (70) and Kerala (57). Tamil Nadu had ranked high on aspects like human resources (regarding health status of workers), institutional data, compliance (vis-a-vis coverage of food businesses in licensing and registration), food testing infrastructure (involving the availability of trained manpower and the necessary technology) and surveillance, as well as areas like training, capacity building, consumer empowerment. TN had also excelled in special outreach programmes, as per the State Food Safety Commissioner P Senthilkumar.

The laurels earned by the State stand in stark contrast to recent developments in Tamil Nadu’s F&B sector. Last week, Food Safety Department officials raided a popular restaurant in Vadapalani, after consumers complained of being served stale meat. The raid unearthed around 60 kg of expired meat and fish from the damaged freezers that could not preserve the items at the right temperature. The management did not have bills for the procurement of the produce, following which the restaurant’s kitchen was sealed for 15 days, to provide it an opportunity to upgrade facilities.

This is not an isolated incident. In May, over 130 kg of spoiled meat was seized by the food safety officials from 19 hotels in Salem. Similar raids that were carried out in eateries across all districts in TN unearthed about 300 kg of stale meat in total. These raids were conducted close on the heels of Kerala embarking on a drive to root out vendors selling items cooked with substandard hygiene. The drive was prompted by the death of a teenager in Kasaragod, who had consumed shawarma.

Food Safety inspectors in Tamil Nadu have their work cut out for them. One can’t walk past a commercial area in the city, and not encounter a restaurant, where the standards of food preparation and storage is far from acceptable. One only needs to look at the feedback/reviews shared by users on restaurant aggregator apps. Complaints encompass everything — from cleanliness and quality of the food cooked and served, to the freshness of the produce, to the quantity of spices, add-ons and more.

This is not an easy problem to solve as hospitality businesses are getting pummelled by the dual impact of rise in food prices and surges in the cost of transport and cold storage. In many districts of TN, where hour long power cuts are the norm, the cost of running an eatery is compounded by investments in diesel-powered backup generators for the freezers. Unless owners of such outlets have deep pockets, it might be impossible to run the business without cutting corners. This explains the reliance on days-old meat or reusing stale oil. The availability of potable water is also a concern. Serving hundreds of clients requires eateries to have an adequate supply of water, not just in the kitchen, but even for the maintenance of the outlet. So it’s left to anyone’s imagination as to how much water is used for dishwashing and cleaning the produce.

States by themselves will not be in a position to mitigate issues arising on account of food safety. A generous push in terms of grants and tech transfer from the Centre on aspects of laboratory infrastructure, coupled with human resources (subject matter experts) to help with awareness and knowledge building initiatives aimed at stakeholders in the food business is certainly worth considering.

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