New Market area eateries fare low on hygiene

KOLKATA: Eating at some of

popular restaurants

in central Kolkata is no

longer safe

- at least going by standards of their

cleanliness and hygiene.

A team of food inspectors from KMC, who raided some of the popular restaurants in the New Market area in an anti-adulteration drive on Friday, were shocked to find kitchens in deplorable conditions. Some eateries were even running without food safety licences.

The team, led by member, mayor-in-council overseeing the

KMC health

department

Atin Ghosh

, issued poor ratings to a section of the restaurants due to the lack of hygiene. While in some eateries waste water flowed freely in the kitchens, a few didn't even have proper kitchens.

Ghosh and KMC health department advisor

T K Mukherjee

asked the restaurant managers to upgrade their kitchens in order to apply for food safety licences.

Food inspectors took samples of biryani and kebabs from some restaurants, which will be tested at the KMC food laboratory. Ghosh's team also raided some of the sherbet stalls in the area and destroyed huge amounts of industrial ice used for preparing soft drinks.

"We will visit the restaurants and the sherbet stalls again. If these do not improve, we may have to close them down," Ghosh said.