Eateries fleece public

Vijayawada: Ever wonder why the quantity and price of food served varies from restaurant to restaurant in the city? It is because there is no proper cap over the price of the food and the government has no authority to decide what amount of food is to be served for the price charged by a restaurant. With increasing demand for eateries, food business is flourishing of late. At very few restaurants in city the value of money spent and quantity and quality of food is met. The rest of them including those of large chains fleece public with exorbitant prices and poor quality and quantity of the food. The raids by food safety authority on Tuesday revealed the same about quality of the food served. In city, biryani is available for Rs 250 and also for Rs 150 in the restaurants that provides same ambience and services. But the concerned legal metrology, which looks after weights and measures of products sold across the markets, has no authority to insist on restaurants provide certain amount of food for the money charged.

“Long ago, the department used to have authority to fix quantity of food offered for a particular price. Later, that went out of our job and there is no authority to check it, only quality can be supervised. We can only take action if an owner promises a particular quantity in written and fails to serve according to it. But that does not happen,” said Krishna district assistant controller of Legal metrology department Mr K. Seshadri. While quantity is a matter of consumer rights, value for money and quality of food served at restaurants affects the health of the food buffs. Though food safety department takes all possible steps to control using unhealthy products in kitchens of eateries only a small portion of it can be done.

Thanks to the poor number of staff available in the department, there are only three personnel including the Gazetted Food Inspector and two food safety officers for the entire district. According to district gazetted food inspector Mr T. Sekhar Reddy, there are no complaints received from consumers regarding quality of food served in the restaurants in city so far. This does not imply that quality food is being served but there is no proper channel to contact the department and lodge a complaint except to visit the office. “If the consumer gives a written complaint we would visit the eatery as soon as possible and verify the complaint and take action,” Mr Sekhar Reddy said. Over 70 cases were booked by officials during raids by the depar-tment are being dealt in the courts currently.