On Ganesh Chaturthi, street food stalls in Cuttack face raid heat by CMC officials

Officials of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) conducted multiple raids on a number of temporary roadside street food kiosks selling chaat, gupchup, momo, and other fried items on Saturday. The drive was launched keeping in view complaints regarding the sale of stale food items during the festive season.

The raids were conducted at small hotels and eateries at Ranihat, College Square, and Jobra Taldanda. The health squad of the CMC seized stale food during the raid and found irregularities in the preparation of the food in the eateries.

The officials also checked the licenses of the eatery owners and fined many of them for the contamination of food. A special squad has been formed for periodic checks and to spread awareness drives, it was learnt. 

Frequent raids will continue to stop the contamination of food and bring a change in the situation, an official stated.

“Due to the upcoming festive season, the food safety teams of CMC have started periodic raids. We have prepared a micro plan, and are accordingly conducting the raids. Today, we conducted raids at Ranihat and College Square,” said an official.

He further added, “The raids will be conducted in other places too. All big and small eateries will be raided. Our primary focus currently is two things - license and sanitation, and quality of food. We will not compromise if there are any irregularities found, be it a big hotel or a small one.”