Bengaluru: A food safety inspection at the canteen of Apollo Hospitals on Bannerghatta Road in Bengaluru has uncovered expired food ingredients, stale bread and several misbranded products, raising concerns over food safety practices at a facility serving patients, attendants and hospital staff.
Officials from the Karnataka Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA) found expired raw materials including rava, icing sugar, maida and bakery products in the canteen kitchen during the inspection on August 13. The team also found stale bread and seized food products that had crossed their shelf life, including four packets of mixture and nine packets of pani puri, officials said.
Several products were also flagged as misbranded, including packets of pani puri, meethi leaves, fried gram, green peas and moong dal. Inspectors further found two plastic chopping boards being used in the kitchen, which officials said did not comply with food safety requirements because of the potential risk of bacterial contamination.
The inspection was part of a wider food safety enforcement drive launched by the Karnataka FSDA across Bengaluru. The department has been conducting inspections of hotels, restaurants, institutional kitchens, warehouses and other food establishments to check expiry dates, storage practices, labelling, hygiene and compliance with food safety regulations.
The Apollo inspection comes amid an intensified food safety crackdown in Bengaluru that began on August 7. During a three-day special drive, officials inspected 60 three-star and five-star hotels across Bengaluru Urban and the Greater Bengaluru area and seized about 1,089 kg of food and other products over alleged food safety violations.
The inspections have also extended to government establishments. On August 12, food safety officials conducted a surprise inspection of the canteen at Arogya Bhavan, which houses the Karnataka Health Department headquarters. Expired food items, including rava idli and coconut powder, were found there, along with FSSAI-related violations and inadequate pest-control measures.
Officials have also inspected Hyperpure, a Zomato unit that supplies food products to hotels in Bengaluru. While the premises were reportedly found to be clean, inspectors identified packed products with labelling issues, including the absence of manufacturers’ licence numbers.
The wider inspections have uncovered violations at several hotels and eateries as well. In one recent set of inspections, six Bengaluru hotels were fined a combined Rs 1.6 lakh for violations including expired cooking oil, improperly stored meat, poor waste segregation, flies and unhygienic conditions.