Kolkata: Pests on the kitchen floor and wrong packaging or unlabelled food can’t be grounds to close down a restaurant, National Restaurants’ Association of India (NRAI) — an umbrella organisation of 5 lakh restaurants, eateries and brand chains around India — has pointed out to state govt. While these are unacceptable, an unclean kitchen does not necessarily have an impact on food stored in it, NRAI has pointed out.It has written to state health ministry urging it to organise its own safety training workshops for restaurants and specify violations that could lead to closures and trade licence cancellations. It has also alleged that some of the city restaurants and eateries were penalised on flimsy grounds.Make it mandatory to issue a ‘clean chit’ to restaurants where everything was found in order during inspections, it urged govt.“At one of our member restaurants, just two cockroaches were found on the kitchen floor, which led inspectors to label the kitchen unhygienic and shut it. They should have checked the food for contamination and then issued a warning before shutting it down, as per FSSAI rules. Unless the food is lab tested and found to be unhygienic or stale, it is unfair to close it,” said NRAI national president Sagar Daryani.He cited the instance of a sweet shop outlet run by a franchisee where the kitchen was declared unhygienic. “They announced the name of the chain which got tarnished. While the other outlets have nothing to do with it, the entire brand image suffered. Also, two famous Park Street restaurants were shown repeatedly on TV and their names announced though a third one was shut down. There should be a method of issuing a clean chit to clear the names of those where everything is in order,” added Daryani.NRAI has also objected to the fact that storage duration and packaging of frozen food were called out though they were not violating food safety rules nor had any bearing on the quality of food. “It is wrong to store meat in plastic carry bags which some restaurants have been doing. But these are only a handful and the packaging has no impact on the meat or vegetables stored in them. The inspectors should have checked if the food was stored at the right temperature and had turned stale. This can be ascertained only after a lab test which is yet to be done. But many of these eateries have been closed down, which is unfair,” said Daryani.According to a KMC food safety department official, the civic body has sent suspension (food license) notices to the errant eateries. “Based on our findings, we have sent suspension notices to the eateries. This is not the closure notice. The closure notice will be issued by the state govt based on our report and findings of the laboratory tests,” said the civic official.He also pointed out that four samples of the food in question have to be collected, including one that has to be retained by the restaurant which can get it tested independently.Most well-known restaurants use the right packaging for stored food, though kitchen hygiene remains a challenge, said Association of Hotels and Restaurants of Eastern India (HRAEI) president Sudesh Poddar. Park Street restaurants, too, claimed they never store food, cooked or raw, more than a day or two. “We buy fresh stock every alternate day and label them so there’s no question of serving stale stuff. Nothing is stored beyond two days,” said Pratap Daryanani, owner of Oasis on Park Street. Daryanani pointed out that storage costs would be higher if raw material is stocked for a long period.However, according to the KMC official, the owners of the errant eateries will need to improve the quality of the overall hygiene and ingredients or raw materials used for cooking. “As long as the process is on, the owners can’t reopen their establishments,” said a KMC food safety cell official.
