Beef being served as mutton at restaurant in Vijayawada

Vijayawada: Officials of the Food Safety and Vijayawada Municipal Corporation expressed ire on the staff of a restaurant for serving stale and unhygienic food to the customers during the surprise check in the city on Tuesday.

The officials were shocked to notice that beef was mixed with mutton and served to the customers at Sri Anjaneya restaurant in Ajit Singh Nagar.

The raid was made after customers lodged a complaint to the Food Safety the VMC officials.

The officials conducted raids on some restaurants, meat shops, chicken shops in Prakash Nagar, Payakapuram and other places. Vijayawada Municipal Corporation veterinary assistant surgeon Dr A Ravichand, food and sanitary inspector Gopala Krishna and Srkianth and others participated in the raids.

Dr Ravichand said that they received complaints from people that beef was mixed with mutton and served to customers. The officials served notices to Sri Anjaneya restaurant owner and pointed out that the food served to the customers at eatery is not safe for consumption. The officials said harmful synthetic colours were also added to the food items to attract the customers and felt this was not good practice.

Besides, the officials served notice to NM Vegetarian restaurant in Ajit Singh Nagar for using synthetic colours in the food. A penalty of Rs 10,000 was collected from the two restaurants for not taking trade license from the VMC.

The locals requested the officials to conduct raids to check the weighing machines being used by the chicken and mutton traders in Ajit Singh Nagar area. Locals feel that the traders are cheating customers by giving less quantity.

VMC commissioner Prasanna Venkatesh said that stern action will be taken against the sale of stale chicken and meat besides serving of the stale food in restaurants. In Prakash Nagar, they found that stale chicken was sold at the chicken shops.They imposed a fine of Rs 4,000 and discarded the chicken.