Thiruvananthapuram: The Food Safety Department has intensified inspections across Kerala ahead of the Onam season to ensure the quality and safety of food products, Health and Devaswom Minister K Muraleedharan said on Sunday.
As part of the ‘Onam Squad’ launched on July 27, the department has conducted 5,016 inspections across the state so far. After detecting violations, 705 notices were issued, and recommendation notices for imposing fines were served on 390 food establishments.
The department has also collected 623 statutory samples and 1,899 surveillance samples of food products for testing.
Focus on Onam essentials
Special attention is being given to food items widely consumed during Onam, including pappadam, jaggery, coconut oil and ghee. Officials are checking product labels, manufacturing and expiry dates, batch numbers, licences, ingredient declarations and other mandatory details. Samples of key raw materials such as jaggery, coconut oil and ghee have been collected and sent to laboratories to assess their quality.
Inspections have also been stepped up at hotels, restaurants, catering establishments and cloud kitchens, particularly those supplying Onam sadhya and other food packets through online platforms.
Officials are checking hygiene during food preparation, packing, storage and distribution, along with temperature control and the use of safe raw materials. They are also verifying proper labelling of food products.
The department is also conducting inspections at distribution centres of online food purchasing platforms. The department is scrutinising the quality and storage conditions of raw materials and packed food, expired or spoiled products, labels, and batch details.
‘Safe Onam’ awareness drive
As part of the ‘Eat Right Keralam-Safe Onam’ project, special classes were organised across all 14 districts for hotel and catering operators, bakery owners and other food business operators. The sessions focused on food safety and hygiene standards to be followed during the preparation, handling, storage and distribution.
Minister K Muraleedharan has directed the Food Safety Department to continue inspections and enforcement measures rigorously throughout the Onam season to ensure safe, quality food is available to the public.
