KOCHI: It seems that hospitals, which are supposed to be the centres for curing ailments have turned into factories of illness, courtesy to the stale food served in their canteens. The Kochi Corporation Health Department on Saturday seized large quantity of stale food from canteens of hospitals and two restaurants here in the city.The raid carried out by the special squad led by health supervisors P K Thampy and James P Thomas unearthed rotten chicken legs, chicken fry, chilly chicken and other chicken dishes, fish fry, stale idli, chicken fry, pickle, pappad, various curry items and oil that was reused for frying various items."The items were seized from canteens in the premises of Ernakulam General Hospital and Medical Trust Hospital, Seashell bar restaurant at Marine Drive and Crystal Plaza bar hotel at Banerjee Road," said Kochi Corporation Health Standing Committee chairman T K Ashraf. He said that the health officials started the raids by 7 am in the morning. "They have conducted inspections at 11 hotels in the city. We were shocked to see that even at the canteen of the hospitals, they were offering stale food," he added.Ashraf said that the oil that they seized from one of the hospital canteens is two weeks old. "It was also noted that the majority of hotels in the city are not following the hygienic norms instructed by the Health Department," added Ashraf.He said that the corporation would soon issue showcause notices to the hotels and canteens. "We will also impose fine on these restaurants," he said adding that the civic body will go ahead with stringent measures including the cancellation of licences if the hotels fail to give an apt reply. The other members in the squad that conducted the raid were health inspectors B Sasikumar, P Manmadan, Shanmughan, Samson, Noushad and John Devasya.
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