Health

Eateries under spotlight

August 12, 2022 6:40 am

Chief Executive Seema Shandil says since January this year, the Consumer Council has received 57 complaints with reoccurring issues such as contaminated food, workers not wearing PPEs, dirty surroundings, and pest infestation. [Photo: Supplied]

Restaurants around the country are once again under the radar of the consumer watchdog following recent cases where certain food establishments were found to be violating food safety laws and standards.

Chief Executive Seema Shandil says since January this year, the Consumer Council has received 57 complaints with reoccurring issues such as contaminated food, workers not wearing PPEs, dirty surroundings, and pest infestation.

“This is just certain restaurants, I am not saying every restaurants are doing the same thing , meals with pest like cockroaches, presence of maggots, presence of flies in meals, serving of stale food or improperly cooked food, the unsanitary conditions, unhygienic food preparation and the list goes on.”

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She adds that what’s more alarming is that at least 16 are repeat offenders.

“The council continues to get the same issues against the same restaurant and in many instances, these offenders have been informed about what improvements can be brought about or should be brought about by them. They have been issued with warning letters but we don’t see any improvements.”

Shandil says it’s high time that repeats offenders are handed strict penalties because this can be seen as good deterrence to stop these issues from reoccurring.