Three restaurants in Lakshmipur have been fined a total of Tk 10 lakh 20 thousand for preparing food in unhygienic kitchens and selling rotten and stale food. The Bangladesh Food Safety Authority supported the drive, which ran from the morning to midday on Friday, 18 September.

The penalties were handed down in summary trials by Senior Judicial Magistrate Mohammad Omar Faruk, judge of the Pure Food Court. Amalesh Bain, DAD of the SRB Noakhali camp, district safe food officer Sumadhu Chakraborty, Lakshmipur municipality safe food inspector Abdullah Hil Hakim and police personnel took part in the operation.

The largest fine, Tk 5 lakh, went to Nurjahan Hotel at Uttar Temuhani. Rajmahal Hotel in the district town was fined Tk 4 lakh and Mohammadia Hotel Tk 1 lakh 20 thousand. The penalties were imposed on Nurjahan Hotel manager Saiful Islam, Bishnu Banik of Rajmahal and Mohammadia Hotel manager Abdul Khaleque.

District safe food officer Sumadhu Chakraborty said the Pure Food Court, the Food Safety Authority and the SRB jointly raided the three establishments and found food being prepared in unhygienic conditions in every kitchen. Raw meat and cooked food were being kept together in the same refrigerator, rotten and stale food was in storage, and a substandard item sold as 'cherry fruit' was found. At Nurjahan Hotel, he said, there was evidence that a prohibited kewra water was being used in food preparation, which he described as harmful to human health.

He added that operations under the Safe Food Act would continue.

The Lakshmipur penalties show the Pure Food Court's summary trials now reaching restaurant kitchens with fines in the lakhs. For hotel and restaurant operators and their food suppliers the message is direct: keep raw and cooked food apart, throw out anything stale, and use only permitted ingredients, or face penalties that can run past a million taka in a single morning.

Source: banglanews24