PANAJI
Continuing its campaign to improve hygiene standards in food outlets, especially in North Goa’s tourism areas, the Food and Drugs Administration last weekend ordered the closure of nine businesses operating in the Anjuna-Vagator area.
This action follows back-to-back drives in Calangute and Porvorim in recent weeks. In its action in Anjuna, the FDA team, headed by Richard Noronha, the designated officer for North Goa under the FSSAI regulation, inspected 20 food outlets and found that four of them were operating without an updated FDA licence.
Several cafés, a North Indian food place, and a popular Goan food business, where the kitchen conditions were found to be below par, were ordered to be shut by the team after the inspections. The FDA said the action is an ongoing effort to ensure food establishments comply with minimum hygiene standards and that public health is not jeopardised.
In the orders issued to the nine outlets, the FDA has stated that the violations must be rectified and reported to it before they can be permitted to reopen.
Earlier in March, Noronha had led a similar drive in Porvorim, where nine restaurants and food outlets were inspected for hygiene and the safety of food items sold by these establishments.
According to FDA sources, these drives will be intensified as the summer peaks, as the shelf life of both uncooked ingredients and cooked food drastically drops and spoils as temperatures rise.
Meanwhile, the FDA has issued general instructions to all food establishments not to compromise on hygiene on their premises.
In December last year, Noronha had led a drive to randomly inspect restaurants, street food kiosks, and outlets trading in packaged food items, including cashew nut and dry fruit shops.
