Mid-Day Opinion: Eating out is finally safe

Rats were found on the premises of K Rustom Ice Cream at Churchgate, and fungus (left) and mould was found in the storage space of Parsi Dairy Farm at Kalbadevi. Pics/By Special Arrangement

If you haven't visited the website dedicated to Maharashtra's Food and Drug Administration yet, I urge you to check it out soon. It may be a lot to take in at first but, for anyone familiar with the ambitious manner in which the state government always functions, this shouldn't be too much of a hassle. When you do, the banner on the home page - ‘Safe Food, Safe Drugs, Safe Maharashtra' - will do much to reassure you that you live in a state that takes your health very seriously. Then, after you scroll past the photographs of a few of our many honourable ministers, you will see how this is being done on a regular basis, in keeping with the department's mission.

I was compelled to visit its website after hearing that the licence of K Rustom & Co in Churchgate was suspended a couple of weeks ago. This was swiftly followed by action against a few other eating establishments, after inspections reportedly revealed serious hygiene and food safety violations. It reassured me that residents of Bombay would now have access to the best food and medicine, thanks to these tireless bureaucrats and officers. The website also informed me, via an introduction that had been published in July 2018, that the FDA was committed to ‘preventing the sale of substandard, misbranded, spurious, adulterated, or banned food and drug products.' In other words, thanks to their work, eating whatever one likes without fear can now be taken for granted.

Reading those news reports about why licences had been suspended, I was struck by the reasons given, all of which sounded like anomalies in a clean state like Maharashtra, where we were all told in school how ‘cleanliness is next to godliness'. Apparently, one restaurant was pulled up because of wet and slippery kitchen floors, missing oil quality records, and poor separation between vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. Another's license was suspended because of insect entry points and the use of old utensils. A third was punished for the ‘poor maintenance of walls and ceilings.'

All of this came as a shock to me. I imagined all the years I had spent in Bombay, blissfully unaware of the fact that I could have had access to safe, hygienic food all along. Memories of greasy plates, insects in food, and filthy walls came to mind, making me wish the FDA had been around in my time. And yet, when I looked up the department's history, I found that it had officially been put into place in 1970, years before my birth. I could only assume that there must have been a few decades of teething problems for results to start appearing.

For now, the good news according to an official statement is that a major statewide enforcement drive has been launched against food safety violations. Officials have been looking at food establishments across the state, as well as dairy products and banned tobacco-based food items. Action against gutkha and flavoured tobacco will also intensify, much as it has been intensifying since I went to college around 30 years ago. With some luck, Maharashtra may even figure out how to stop the sale of gutkha and pan masala within the next 30 years. It's good for one to be optimistic about these things.

Excitement about the prospect of stress-free eating and medication also prompted me to spend a little more time on the FDA's website, where I was attracted by a page listing ‘Drugs Prohibites for Manufacture & Sale [sic]'. It took me to another website, where I found that the last prohibited drugs were ‘fixed dose combinations of Etodolac + Paracetamol' back in June, 2017. This implied that everything sold at local chemists since then was safe for consumption, although I wondered what some African countries would say about this, given their recent experiences with pharmaceuticals from India.

I'm probably being uncharitable towards the FDA, for which I must apologise. After all, if it weren't for this department, foreigners would be appalled by the standards of hygiene on display at eating establishments across Maharashtra. It is only thanks to the FDA and the fact that it has been doing its job so diligently since 1970 that we can step into any restaurant without fear of catching a stomach bug.

There are an estimated 15,000 licensed restaurants in Bombay. Now that the food safety licences of around six have been suspended, it still leaves us with over 14,994 places to eat in without fear. Bon Appetit.

When he isn't ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He can be contacted at www.lindsaypereira.com
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