Restaurant kitchens to have CCTVs to ensure food quality

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Saddif Ovee
Published : 03:00, Nov 10, 2018 | Updated : 03:00, Nov 10, 2018

Food administration has become alert to ensure safe eating, and as part of this, mobile courts were in operation for the whole of October. Stale food and unhygienic conditions were found in reputed restaurants around the city and they were fined to a total of Tk 5.4 million.
To ensure standard of food, safe food authority will make it mandatory to place CCTVs in kitchens.
During a drive to noted restaurants, mobile courts found all kinds of meat and vegetables kept in the same basin. They also found expired mushrooms, pineapple, carrots with fungi, dirt beside meat to be used for cooking and other kitchen faults.
Executive magistrate of the safe food authority, Tushar Ahmed, said, “This drive will continue with another ten visits planned for November.”
The second drive will be to see if the restaurants that were fined carried out improvements within the specified time.
“If not then they will be shut down.”
Most restaurants are apathetic in keeping the kitchens clean, he added.
The main task of the drive is the remind them of the importance of cleanliness.
On the other hand, from December, food authority will use red, yellow and green stickers to identify hygiene conditions at restaurants around Motijheel, Dilkusha, Gulisthan, Topkhana and the secretariat.
All kitchens will be made visible and CCTV’s will be placed in the kitchens.
To qualify for green zone, kitchens have to be clean while transparent glass needs to be used instead of walls around the kitchen.
Until certain safety conditions are met, the sticker will be yellow while red will be used if a restaurant fails to meet the requirements.
Safe food authority also informs that under the green zone, owners of eateries were trained a few days ago and now the workers are given special lessons on cleanliness.
Additional secretary and safe food committee member, Mahbub Kabir, told Bangla Tribune, “Everyone has to make kitchens visible, there’s no other alternative – either glass or CCTV monitoring is a must.”
We will change everything within 24 days, he asserted.
No amount of lobbying will work once a restaurant is sealed, came his firm statement.

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