Unsold meat is taken out of the gravy, washed and kept in fridge
Picture used for representational purpose. (photo: DC/File)
Kollam: Hoteliers do not just throw away the unsold non-vegetarian dishes. The meat in the unsold preparations is taken out of the gravy, washed and kept in refrigerators to be mixed and recycled in the next day’s curries! However, even if they are caught, the government authorities do not have a provision to detect the ageing of meat in the labs of Kerala. This is what the hoteliers themselves admit.
Inspections by food safety authorities fail most of the times as it is difficult to identify the stale food mixed in fresh gravy of a new preparation.
“The mutton price has rocketed to almost Rs 550 per kilogram. How can we just throw out the preparation, with almost one or two kilograms of meat in it? The meat is washed of the curry and is kept in fridges outside our eateries. This meat is mixed with the preparation the next day. The fresh meat is not cooked to the core in the first round and the stale meat is mixed as a second round mostly during afternoons,” this is what a famous mutton specialty restaurant owner confessed.
Vegetarian food is also not spared. The pieces of sliced vegetables found in a day’s avial may be encountered in the next day’s sambar. In most of the vegetarian restaurants, the main component of unsold meal, the rice is reused by mixing it with new rice in the boiling stage. But there are chances to identify this rice as it has no regular edges, they say.
“We normally penalise for what we observe like keeping stale meat in the kitchen and for unhygienic conditions. However, we lack proper facilities to identify the mix-up of meat in preparations,” said A.K. Mini, food safety officer. However The state lacks microbiology labs to identify the type of meat by fibre test and the ageing of the stale meat. The special containers to preserve the specimen for the test is also unavailable, and the hoteliers can relax for now.
( Source : dc )
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