Hotel, pub, bar and restaurant owners in Bengaluru may soon start to be subject to stricter kitchen and food-storage rules under new guidelines by food safety authorities to prevent the use and serving of expired, spoiled and fungus-contaminated food.
The proposals come at the time of inspections in Bengaluru where food safety officials found expired food items, mould-affected vegetables, spoiled meat and dairy products in the kitchens of several hotels. The findings raise questions about food hygiene and consumer safety, and government agencies have beefed up monitoring in commercial kitchens.
More than 60 three-star and five-star hotels were inspected in a special drive, with officials taking more than 1,000 kg of food and food ingredients. The inspections have highlighted that hotels should have better rules on how they store, prepare, label and dispose of food.
New rules could cover the whole food storage process
The proposed guidelines are expected to cover a lot of commercial kitchen operations.
Food storage and shelf life management will be one of the key areas. Hotels and restaurants might have to maintain clear records of when food products were received, how they were stored, when they were opened, and by when they must be used.
Vegetables and other fresh ingredients will also come under greater scrutiny. Hotels will have to make sure that rotten or fungus-affected vegetables are immediately removed from kitchen storage instead of being used in food preparation.
Strict rules for frozen food
Frozen food is also expected to receive greater attention.
Commercial kitchens will need to follow the proper freezing, storage, and thawing procedures. Food safety practices generally discourage refreezing food after it has been thawed, particularly where food has been exposed to unsafe temperatures.
Restaurants will therefore be required to keep better records of frozen products and ensure food is thawed in a safe way.
Dairy products could be separately monitored
Products such as curd, cheese, butter, milk and other dairy ingredients also need temperature-controlled storage.
Under such a system, kitchens would have to maintain proper storage conditions and monitor the shelf life of dairy products more closely. Expired or visibly spoiled dairy products would need to be removed from food-preparation areas.
Food quality of cooking oil is a subject of investigation
Used cooking oil is another major food-safety problem.
The oil used repeatedly for frying will be monitored, and local authorities will be told. The total polar compounds (TPC) of used cooking oil are 25% under FSSAI's guidelines. If any oil goes over the TPC limit, it should not be used for cooking.
Restaurants and hotels may therefore need systems to monitor used cooking oil and ensure that degraded oil is disposed of properly rather than reused repeatedly.
Separate storage for raw and cooked food
Moreover, some of the most important elements are the separation of raw, partially cooked and ready-to-eat food.
Vegetarian and non-vegetarian ingredients should also be handled and stored separately to eliminate cross-contamination.
Food products, including meat, fish and other animal-based products, need to be kept at safe temperatures during storage. Maintaining appropriate temperature control of food products is critical for both storage, preparation and service since the wrong temperature can cause microorganisms to thrive.
Temperature control is one of the things that’s going to become critical.
Commercial kitchens may also have to keep detailed temperature records.
The proposed framework would place a greater emphasis on keeping food at safe temperatures during storage and service. Cold foods need to be sufficiently chilled; hot food must stay at safe serving temperatures.
Frozen products need appropriate freezer temperatures, while reheated food needs a high internal temperature before it is served.
Cooking temperature logs may become key to maintaining kitchen compliance, so that food safety officials can check whether restaurants are following proper storage and handling practices.
Expired food disposal: get a clear SOP
The most important change will likely be to dispose of expired and spoiled food.
Hotels may need to have a clearly defined Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for identifying, separating, and disposing of food that is no longer fit for consumption.
Expired or spoiled products must not be kept alongside usable ingredients in a commercial kitchen. Officials may also require businesses to record when rejected food was removed and how it was disposed of.
Tough action for violations
The proposed rules are designed not only to make food hygiene a lot better but to make commercial food businesses more accountable.
Food safety violations by hotels, restaurants, pubs and bars could face enforcement action under applicable food safety laws.
For businesses, this means kitchen management can no longer be treated as an informal process. Labelling, stock rotation, temperature monitoring, storage practices and disposal procedures could become more and more crucial during inspections.
What does it mean for the customers?
Food safety monitoring might provide consumers with greater confidence when they eat at restaurants and hotels.
The recent inspections have illustrated that food storage and kitchen hygiene matter even in premium establishments. Expired or contaminated ingredients may pose serious risks when the food preparation process starts.
The proposed guidelines could lead to more uniformity of commercial kitchen practices across Bengaluru.
One of the major steps towards safer kitchens
The proposed food safety measures are a major step towards better hygiene standards in Bengaluru's hospitality industry. From vegetable storage and frozen food handling to dairy products, cooking oil, temperature control and disposal of expired ingredients, commercial kitchens could soon come under much more scrutiny.
Though the specific implementation procedure and enforcement will be determined by the final guidelines from the authorities, the message for hotel and restaurant operators is clear: food safety and kitchen hygiene will be the focus going forward.
In the process, for customers, more effective enforcement would mean safer food, better hygiene and greater accountability on the part of the businesses serving food to the public.
