Stale food in hotels harms people

Nellore: People who come to hotels are generally impressed by cool air-conditioned rooms, fine-looking environs and neatly dressed waiters. They do not pay much attention to the quality of food. Not only roadside food stalls, but even majority of popular restaurants and hotels have been serving  contaminated and stale food. When Food Safety officials conducted raids on many popular hotels in the city, they found unhygienic conditions at kitchens. 

Popular hotels in the city were found to be having rotten non-vegetarian food items in refrigerators and also in preserving systems. People, after eating such food items, complain of stomach pain and vomiting. They get diarrhoea and other diseases.  They simply consult the doctor and get treatment and never blame the hotel or restaurant managements.  

Experts say, more than 200 diseases are caused by unsafe food containing harmful bacteria, parasites, viruses, toxins and chemical substances. 
There are only a few pure vegetarian hotels and others are both veg and non-veg hotels. Normally, non-vegetarian restaurants charge more when compared to vegetarian hotels as they purchase raw material, store in deep freezers, and serve to the customers. They, sometimes, preserve prepared food in refrigerators for serving on the next day. 

Many times stale food gets spoiled even it is stored in refrigerators. Still, customers cannot identify it due to presence of masalas. Nellore is basically famous for non-vegetarian and sea foods and people from outside prefer Nellore fish curry and other fish varieties, Hot pot biryani, various varieties of chicken, mutton, and local combination of non-veg with vegetables like Gongura, Mango, drumsticks and others.

Now, popular non-vegetarian hotels also resorting to adulteration and irregular practices of storage leading to contamination. Food-borne and waterborne diseases kill people, most of whom are children. Pregnant women, the sick and the elderly are also particularly vulnerable to foodborne diseases, said Dr A Subrahmanyam, a physician from the city.