The Kerala government has banned the sale of food parcels without slips or stickers with details of expiry date in the state. Health Minister Veena George on Saturday, January 21, ordered the ban in the wake of increasing incidents of food poisoning in the state.
“Food packages that do not have a slip or sticker with a food safety warning should not be sold in the state. The slip or sticker should specify the date and time the food was cooked and the time within which it should be consumed,” a press statement said.
According to the Food Safety and Standards Regulations, food classified as high-risk hot foods, must be consumed within two hours of cooking. The temperature should be maintained at 60 degrees even in transit to places where such food takes longer to reach. These foods are likely to become injurious to health and unfit for human consumption when kept at room temperature for more than 2 hours. “Therefore, this decision was taken because some restrictions were found to be necessary,” the Minister said.
The decision comes amidst the state government's ongoing campaign against restaurants and eateries selling contaminated food. Recently, 68 people were admitted to various hospitals with symptoms of food poisoning after eating at a restaurant in Ernakulam district's North Paravoor. On January 2, a female nurse working at Kottayam Medical College died after allegedly consuming food from a hotel in Kottayam. Besides her, 21 others fell sick after eating at the same eatery, but they all recovered. The eatery was subsequently shut down and its chief cook and owner were arrested by the police.
In Pathanamthitta, over 100 people suffered from suspected food poisoning on January 1 after allegedly eating at a baptism function in a church near the Keezhvaipur area of the district. The government had said that it had taken action against the caterers involved.