In the lack of set standards for hotel and restaurants as well as food items being produced and sold by them, investigation into the hygiene level of such food items has not been effective. [break]
Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC), Department of Commerce (DoC), National Bureau of Standard and Metrology, and District Administration Office are the key agencies responsible for monitoring and inspection of the market.
“Though we have no special plan to step up monitoring and inspection of eateries and their products this year, recent cases of low-grade food items have opened our eyes. Due to lack of technical guidelines with us, asserting to enforce precise standard for eateries and quality of their foods has been difficult,” Pramod Koirala, spokesperson of DFTQC, told Republica.
DoC is preparing to formulate a guideline for hotels and restaurants as well as food items being sold by them. DFTQC has set standards for 113 food items including edible oil, dairy products, ghee, mineral water -- these were found to be most contaminated among the food samples collected last year.
DFTQC has set inspection teams for 156 times and collected 849 food samples from different markets during the year 2010/11. However, DFTQC has no plan to increase the number of inspections this year despite rising cases of food adulteration, production and sale of sub-standard foods to the consumer even by reputed outlets.
“Though we have no plan to increase the number of market inspection, the recent cases in the market shows that it is necessary to focus on eateries, especially big outlets in coming days,” said Koirala.
DFTQC which is supposed to keep a close eye on eateries will limit its inspection and monitoring only to packed food items showcased in food stores due to lack of human resources and necessary logistics. “As we are working with limited resources and only 10 officials to monitor the market of the entire Kathmandu valley, we are planning to take support from the Kathmandu Metropolitan Corporation for effective monitoring of these eateries and their foods,” Koirala added.
Khila Nath Bastakoti, director of DoC, said fresh cases relating to food contamination and use of low-quality materials even by reputed outlets were unexpected.
“Though we are well aware about the necessity to focus on foods made in restaurants and hotels, we are continuing the normal monitoring and inspection as in the past years,” said Bastakoti. He said big and well-established outlets will be the focus of monitoring this year.
“We will soon form a flying squad to strengthen market monitoring as envisaged in the recently announced Immediate Relief Program 2011,” said Bastakoti.
He said the flying squad will be mobilized for inspecting and monitoring outlets of foods, meats, vegetable and fruits. Currently, DoC monitors the market in the capital of four million of people with only five officials.
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