Hyderabad: The incidences of people getting sick by eating food from restaurants and stalls have been reported frequently in different parts of Hyderabad. Noting this the food safety officers have beefed up their monitoring in different food ventures in the city. On October 29, the officers inspected a licensed Zomato warehouse where they found 20 kilograms of packed button mushroom which had the packaging date of the October 30, 2024.
The inspection took place at Hyperpure warehouse of Zomato in Kukatpally, Hyderabad. The place claims to deliver fresh food items (Blinkit is also owned by Zomato) as a Food Business Operator (FBO) and has a valid State License. The FBOs provide different types of items like fresh vegetables, fruits, dairy products, meat, seafood, household utility equipments, kitchen essentials, packaging materials, consumables etc to different hotels, restaurants and online/offline food delivery services.
The food safety officials found several violations in the warehouse. The space was operating in unhygienic condition with flies hovering all over. There were no insect proof screens. Caps and aprons were not worn by many staffers. According to the Commissioner of Food Safety there was no insect proof screen between the premises and the external environment.
The food safety violations have been reported in several ventures in Hyderabad since past few weeks. Recently, on October 24, the Banjara Police arrested six people after a woman named Reshma Begum, 33, reportedly died after consuming momos from a food stall in Nandi Nagar, Banjara Hills. Apart from this there were cases of 50 persons who fell sick after consuming momos from various stalls of city.
Noting increasing cases of food poisoning, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) initiated a drive for inspecting momo stalls across the city. The drive covered 110 momo stalls and samples were collected from 69 stalls for testing.
