Food safety: Hotel owners propose test labs at meeting with Khader

Health Minister U.T. Khader has asked hotels and restaurants across Karnataka to strengthen hygiene and food safety measures, stressing that public health cannot be compromised for commercial interests.

At a consultative meeting with representatives of hotel industry associations, including the Karnataka State Hotel Association, Bangalore Hotels Association, Food Caterers Association and South India Hotels Association, Mr. Khader reviewed lapses detected during food safety inspections over the past month.

“The government is committed to hearing the concerns of the hotel industry and providing guidance, but food safety remains non-negotiable,” he said.

The Minister asked hotels and restaurants to maintain scientifically designed storage facilities and ensure that food ingredients carry details such as manufacturing and expiry dates. Hotels were advised to consider installing CCTV cameras in kitchens to improve transparency and consumer confidence.

On their part, the associations also urged the department to inspect suppliers of raw materials, arguing that hotels should not be penalised when substandard ingredients are supplied to them. Mr. Khader agreed to the suggestion.

G.K. Shetty, honorary president of the Karnataka State Hotel Association, said the associations had proposed setting up a food testing laboratory in collaboration with the State government.

“The infrastructure and testing facilities will be completely sponsored by the associations. The Minister has agreed to the proposal and will guide us on the requirements under FSSAI standards,” he said. The proposed laboratory would test food prepared by hotels and issue certificates, Mr. Shetty said.

The associations also requested that a representative of the hotel industry be allowed to accompany food safety officials during inspections, without being informed in advance about the establishments to be inspected.

The hotels’ associations sought withdrawal of the QR-code based complaint system introduced earlier by the department, expressing concern that it could be misused for false complaints or blackmail.

Mr. Shetty said the Minister had made it clear that the system could not be withdrawn, but assured them that the department would address concerns over fake complaints.

The department will also examine the association’s proposal to allow customers to rate hygiene and food quality through the QR system as “good”, “average” or “poor”.

The associations further pointed out that roads, footpaths and drainage around hotels were the responsibility of civic and other government agencies and urged these facilities to be maintained properly.