Telangana | Food police has plate full

A popular fast food halt near Charminar frying its lip-smacking chicken in oil as dense and dark as engine lubricants, coating it with prohibited colours for that reddish lure. Elsewhere, samosas being made using spoiled ingredients. Stale, raw meat attracting flies, cockroaches scampering around shelves, doubtful water, food items as expired as operational licences—the sights that awaited a new posse of ‘food police’ at restaurants in Hyderabad could have put them off food for good. Not just street food—elite restaurants, a few established houses among them, were not entirely squeaky-clean either.

Renowned for its biryani, haleem and local culinary fare, Hyderabad is a foodie’s paradise. But an inspection of its restaurant kitchens is also revealing much that’s unappetising. Commercial food hygiene is usually the remit of food safety and civic authorities, but these sins are being uncovered, booked and brought to public notice by a police special unit formed in March: the Hyderabad Food Adulteration Surveillance Team (H-FAST). The brains behind the drive is a man known to take no prisoners: city police commissioner V.C. Sajjanar, who made national news in 2019 when four accused in a veterinarian’s rape-murder were shot dead in an encounter in Cyberabad, then his charge.

TONNES OF ‘JUNK’ FOOD

In the past three months or so, H-FAST is on an encounter of another sort. It has seized and discarded 122 tonnes of hazardous/adulterated food materials, including 27,024 kg of impure ginger-garlic paste, 25,845 kg of chemically ripened fruits, 60+ tonnes of discarded chicken waste and substandard meat, 9,260 kg of stale/adulterated pickles, 4,030 kg of adulterated khoya, 3,897 kg of spurious tea powder and 3,260 kg of iffy cream. The visuals from the ‘Customers Not Allowed’ sections of quite a few eateries are horrifying their patrons.

The revelations from H-FAST on local food manufacturing units, especially in the old city, are no less shocking. In one of their raids at a unit at Gaganpahad last month, H-FAST sleuths noticed fungus-affected chillies, insect-infested dhaniya, even pigeon droppings. These hazard-laden products are supplied to several restaurants across the city. “A generation back, food adulteration was about the doodhwala adding some water to milk, or some grocers mixing small stones in rice or pulses. Now, almost every food item is being adulterated, often with harmful substances. Nothing seems to be safe,” says Sajjanar, a 1996 batch IPS of DGP rank, invoking the Tirupati laddoo case. “H-FAST was formed as a safeguard under our People Welfare Police policy. The adulteration mafia has to be dealt with firmly,” he tells india today, adding that departmental synergy has been critical to his drive.

Coordinating with H-FAST are the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s food safety and veterinary departments. Staffed by 36 officers under a DCP, H-FAST had registered over 185 cases till the first week of July, transferring 247 cases to food safety officers for further action. The scale underscores the gravity of the threat to public health, says the task force’s in-charge, DCP Vaibhav Raghunath Gaikwad, citing the 1,500-plus kg of fake paneer seized. “It was mostly cheese analogue made with vegetable fats, non-milk ingredients, supplied by local manufacturers (at half price).”

As intelligence, public inputs and complaints fuel more raids, guidelines are being issued that make it mandatory for all food businesses to possess valid licences, maintain strict hygiene standards like gloves and masks for staff, implement the ‘First In, First Out’ inventory method to prevent the mixing of old and fresh stock, and completely avoid reuse of cooking oil. A top official says the Revanth Reddy government is moving to expand the strict enforcement of food safety regulations across the state. “Adulteration mafia, unhygienic kitchens and restaurants are everywhere across the country, but our government prioritises public health, ensuring Hyderabad’s brand image as a culinary destination,” he says.

Following H-FAST’s exposes and the ensuing public outcry, some restaurants have begun live-streaming their kitchen in the dining space for their patrons to view. Foodie clubs in Hyderabad, too, are welcoming the action. “Sadly, several restaurants, including some famous biryani hubs, do not seem to take serving hygienically prepared food as an ethical responsibility. Hope the police action is not a short-lived affair. We also need to strengthen our laws to ensure there is no compromise on food safety,” says Ravikanth Reddy of the Great Hyderabad Food and Travel Club.