Beware of unhygienic foods
During this Christmas season, Public Health Inspectors (PHIs) detected a string of cases involving the sale of unhygienic raw materials for the preparation of delicacies.
Among them were instances of sale old and damaged eggs and sale of outdated and/or damaged ingredients to traders producing food items for sale at eateries, as well as to road-side outlets.
In a par t i c u l a r instance reported from Chilaw, unwashed eggs with chicken excreta are said to have been used along with cake ingredients by bakeries.
PHIs also detected 400 boxes with damaged and spoiled eggs ready to be mixed with cake ingredients at a particular bak- ery specialising in the baking of cakes in Chilaw.
During the raid, inspectors destroyed 300 rotton eggs while keeping a sample of 100 eggs as court production.
PHIs discovered damaged eggs were being sold at Rs 10/- per egg whereas the market price of an egg was Rs. 25/-.
A vendor marketing damaged and unhygienic food items was released after being produced in Court.
Instances fruits unfit for consumption were also detected at several locations in Colombo during the week.
According to the PHIs “most of the over- ripe and damaged fruits are purchased by persons involved in sale of goods for the production of Xmas delicacies”, a PHI said.
The raids follow a string of public complaints about the lack of stringent checks by health department officials which enabled traders to use unhygienic food items.