restaurants Vaishali Roopali Goodluck FDA chutney Recent surprise visits from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have caught several of the city’s most beloved restaurants off guard, with the authority clocking various health and hygiene violations at these iconic establishments. Thehas now issued notices to these eateries, which include Vaishali, Roopali, Café Goodluck, Yana Sizzlers, Modern Café, Gandharv Restaurant, Shubham Pure Veg and Panchali Restaurant.This is part of an ongoing drive by the regulation body to ensure that well-known restaurants in every area are maintaining expected standards of cleanliness.As per the Food Safety and Standards Act, 1006, hotels and restaurants must ensure that the kitchen conditions, as well as the cleanliness and hygiene of the chefs are of a certain standard. Routine health check-ups of the chef and staff are mandatory and a hotel, restaurant or food stall must cook and serve food in clean utensils. The kitchen serving areas must be kept clean and only potable drinking water used for cooking. Those handling food must also be sure to cover their hair.Most of the restaurants the FDA visited fell woefully short of these standards. At Vaishali on Fergusson College Road, officials found garbage all around the premises and the food licence conspicuously absent. There were no records of health check-ups having been done for the staff preparing and serving the food. The deep freezers used to store the raw material were found to be dirty and the ‘first in first out’ method wasn’t being used. There were also no records of pest control done in the restaurant and staffers were not using caps while preparing the food.At Roopali, too, there was no food licence displayed nor records of health checks. The storeroom where raw material is stored was in an unhygienic condition and the food prepared was kept in open containers. There was no proper arrangement for disposal of garbage and, like Vaishali, the freezers were dirty. There were no record of the mandatory pest control having been done and the staff were bare-headed while preparing food.Café Goodluck proved no better, with the kitchen full of dirt and the roofs and walls covered in spider webs. The utensils being used to cook food were found dirty and the food was kept open after being prepared. Once again, no health records were found and the freezers were unhygienic.Commenting on the condition of Yana Sizzlers, Aparna Bhoite, assistant commissioner, FDA, said, “The freezer was dirty and thebeing served had no proper wrapping. There was no changing room for the staff, either.”Elaborating on the drive and its aim, state FDA commissioner Pallavi Darade explained, “We are focusing on the top 20 restaurants of every area in the city. And, despite having been in business for several years, many of them have been functioning in unhygienic conditions. We have issued notices to them and further action will be taken against them later. These restaurants attract hordes of people and it is mandatory for them to maintain hygiene standards as per rules.”Restaurateurs, however, are not happy at being sent notices, pointing out that many of the norms are not feasible. Ranjeet Shetty of Vaishali, said, “We have a food licence — what difference does it make if it is displayed on the wall or not. There is no restaurant that meets all the norms of the Food Safety and Standards Act in any case. We do a routine health check of the staff as well as pest control. But we don’t keep the records at the restaurant — they are at the office. I’m surprised by the notice since we comply with most of the rules.”Ganesh Shetty, president, Pune Hoteliers and Restaurant Association, added, “It is mandatory that the Food Safety and Standards Act be followed. Most eateries were being judicious about it, but some of them are becoming a tad complacent. But circumstances must be taken into account. For instance, if the garbage van doesn’t come, there’s nothing we can do. Sometimes, we are unaware of the date for the staff medical check-up. The association now has a doctor for this purpose so we are trying to maintain the norms and increase awareness. We definitely follow those rules that are in our hands and feasible.”

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