KPCC president K Sudhakaran has, on Saturday, said that the state government should stop conducting farcical raids only when people die of food poisoning. Instead, food safety raids should be conducted throughout the year.
Speaking to media persons here in the backdrop of a second death due to food poisoning in the state within the past five days, Sudhakaran asked how many more lives have to be sacrificed to carry out flawless food safety inspections.
He also asked how the Food Safety Department can be called in that name when it is not providing any food security to the people of the state.
Stating that strict criminal action should be taken against those who serve poisoned food, Sudhakaran said the Kerala government has an obligation to ensure that quality food is sold in hotels.
He accused the Department of Food Safety, the Health Department and local self-governing bodies of not taking any steps to strengthen food safety inspections. This is the reason why food poisoning cases, including death due to food poison, have been frequently reported from the state.
He lamented that the state does not have a good system for testing samples collected from hotels.