A mother and daughter from the Trivandrum district of Kerala were shocked to see a finger-long snakeskin in a packet of porotta they bought from a known restaurant.
Priya, the mother, was accompanying her daughter who was going to attend her Class X examination in Nedumangad. Since there was a slight delay in the examination, they decided to go to a nearby restaurant to have food. They ordered porotta and curry. Upon opening the newspaper cover the food was kept in, they noticed what looked like a finger-long snakeskin.
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They immediately went to the Nedumangad police station to file a complaint against the restaurant owners. The police directed them to the food safety officials who sent the snakeskin for testing. Arshitha Basheer, who is the food safety officer of the Nedumangad circle, sent a team to inspect the restaurant. According to the Indian Express, Arshitha shared, “[The Restaurant] worked in a bad condition. The kitchen did not have sufficient lighting and scrap was seen dumped outside. The outlet was shut at once and a showcause notice was served.”
Arshitha further added, “Our preliminary finding is that the dead skin was in the newspaper used for packing the food. The porotta was packed in transparent paper and wrapped around with a newspaper. The skin somehow came into contact with the porotta. The skin piece was half a finger long.”
When the news broke out on Twitter, many people shared their disgust about eating outside in Kerala. Their raised concerns about the hygienic aspect of many locally-run restaurants in the state. Very recently, in an unfortunate incident, 58 people fell sick and a young girl died after eating a shawarma dish in Kerala’s Kasaragod district. In the past week, close to 110 eateries were closed and 347 establishments were served notices because they either served stale food or were running without valid licenses. These incidents have brought to light the number of restaurants that don’t comply with the Food Safety and Standards Act in Kerala.
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