Hyderabad: On August 8, a man saw a cockroach crawling on a food counter in PVR, Forum Mall, Hyderabad. He took a video of the incident and uploaded it on Twitter. It went viral.
The roach was seen crawling against the glass of the food counter where the so-called delicious fresh condiments were arranged, unhindered and unnoticed by the multiplex staff. It is a well-known fact that roaches do not travel alone and breed fast, causing a single roach to multiply into a roach colony quickly and it is thus, a serious health threat. Just by crawling over food, these insects cross-contaminate food, causing a series of possible health hazards like food poisoning, Salmonella Typhoid and other allergies.
Dr Aneesh Anand, general physician at Apollo Hospitals, said, “The most common type of health hazard spread by roach infestation is food poisoning and allergies. It is important to take action, however, as in some cases of food poisoning the symptoms begin to show between a few hours to more than a few days, which confuses the patient as to the source of the disease, allowing for food establishments to continue serving infected food to more people”.
The twitter feed drew the attention of GHMC’s additional commissioner Musharraf Faruqui, who said, “A team was sent to the PVR location and samples of the food were collected and sent to the food division for testing. The results should be available by tomorrow. In addition, GHMC is sending another team to check other health standards at the multiplex. Depending upon the severity of the violations, the GHMC has the authority to impose a penalty, issue a warning or even cancel the licence.”
Complaints of these sorts can be raised by calling the GHMC toll free number 040 2111 1111. The GHMC department also ensures that social media forums are scanned daily and immediate action is taken to investigate allegations of public health concern.
