Times
of India: Hyderabad: Saturday, 28 November 2015.
Four months
after the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) lifted food samples
from Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) outlets for tests at the State Food
Laboratory (SFL), RTI activists are stumped by the conflicting versions being
given by the two state bodies.
City-based
RTI activist Bakka Judson sought the status of the KFC samples by filing two
applications before GHMC's food safety wing and SFL. But, both passed the buck
on to each other.
When asked
about the details of samples it tested from June 2014 to August 2015, the chief
public analyst of Nacharam-based SFL said: "...the information regarding
KFC is not available with the lab as it is not mentioned in the memorandum to
food analyst."
"This is
surprising as the admission by SFL of not having any information on KFC only
goes on to show that health of the people is not a priority for the GHMC's food
safety department. In other words, it only means that they did not receive the
samples at all," said Bakka Judson.
Under the
memorandum to food analyst Form-VI, a food safe ty officer is required to fill
details like code number, date and place of collection, name and nature of
articles etc. before sending the same to the food analyst for testing.
However, what
raises more eyebrows is the claim made by the GHMC's food safety wing in
another RTI reply dated November 13 (copy with TOI) that they sent 42 KFC
samples as `surveillance samples for bacteriological analysis purpose and sent
the same to the state food safety laboratory'.
In its reply,
the superintendent of the GHMC's health and sanitation department said that on June
26 and June 27, food safety officials of GHMC lifted 42 food samples from
`various outlets of KFC in GHMC limits under the provisions of Food Safety and
Standards Act, 2006 and rules made thereunder for analysis purpose and sent the
same to the state food laboratory'.
It may be
recalled that soon after the samples were lifted, KFC. owned by Yum!
Restaurants India Pvt. Ltd, obtained an interim stay order from the High Court
on July 7 by filing a writ petition against commissioner of food safety , Telangana,
following which the latter filed a petition to vacate the stay .The petition is
yet to be heard.
When
contacted, Dr T Damodar, one of the food safety officers (FSDOs) in GHMC's
health and sanitation department, said that he could not immediately respond
without seeing the RTI replies furnished by the two state government bodies.