Bangalore: For six months, hotels, provision stores and milk booths in the city have not been checked for food adulteration. This has happened at a time when inspecting the quality of food is considered essential from a public health point of view.

Corporator B.S. Sathyanarayana, a member of the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) Health Committee, told The Hindu on Wednesday that food inspectors in the city had not performed their duties for a long time.

"We had recommended that all meat shops in the city be checked for hygiene after the bird flu scare. But till now we have received no report from the food inspectors," he said.

Now, the food inspectors have an official reason for this. The building and equipment of the food-testing laboratory are being upgraded and will probably take another two months. Until then no tests will be done.

Why not get the food tests done elsewhere with the existing equipment? The BMP has no definitive answer. Is it not important that these food checks are done?

BMP Chief Health Officer Vijayalakshmi says it will be be unfair to conduct tests without proper equipment and better to wait for the upgraded equipment.

The estimated cost of the project is Rs. 25 lakh.

The BMP is set to acquire equipment to analyse food and water for pesticide content, alcohol and bacterial contamination, says Dr. Vijayalakshmi.

Earlier, the food-testing laboratory could test only about 20 samples in a month but with the upgradation, about 600 samples can be tested, she says.

Shortage of staff

Currently, the city has only eight functioning food inspectors to check for adulteration. Four other vacancies have not been filled for several years. This means many establishments may not be inspected on a regular basis. Asked about their plan of action, BMP officials cited a government notification of 2005, which recommends that the civic body appoint more food inspectors.

According to sources in the Health Department of the BMP, the civic body has decided to train its 30 medical officers to conduct food checks.

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