In order to prevent food safety issues during Onam season, the food safety commissioner has constituted 40 squads to carry out inspections in manufacturing units, restaurants, hotels and wayside shops across the state.
Food safety commissioner Navjot Khosa has also sent letters to food safety commissioners in the neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, urging them to increase surveillance during the period.
Being a consumerist state, Kerala depends on these states for its food requirements. Khosa’s letter has expressed concerns over possible adulteration of products like milk, coconut oil, fruits, vegetables and chicken which are brought from other states.
Khosa requested the neighbouring states to increased surveillance and inspection in the production units there.
Food safety department officials said that manufacturers use innovative methods to hide adulteration. Food safety assistant commissioner Anil Kumar said that cheaper oils like palm oil and palm kernel oil are pushed into the market, instead of coconut oil.
“It is difficult to detect this through tests because the manufacturers have found new ways to ensure that the samples meet the parameters of coconut oil,” he said.