Eatery closed after tourist finds cockroach in his dish

Our Correspondent

Srinagar, May 8

The J&K Drugs & Food Control Organisation has suspended the operations of one of the units of the Hattrick group on the city outskirts, two days after a group of tourists alleged that they found a cockroach while having food at the restaurant.

The officials said their inspection team found that the restaurant was functioning under unhygienic conditions which forced them to close its operations in Hazratbal.

“We have closed down the operations of the restaurant after our inspection team, found that the hygiene conditions were not up to the mark,” said Hilal Ahmad Mir, Assistant Commissioner, Food and Safety, Drugs & Food Control Organisation.

“We have suspended its operations till we get the reports of the samples which we have taken from the restaurant,” he added.

Officials said that on Wednesday a group of tourists from Mumbai had found cockroach in the “Biryani”, which they had ordered at the Hattrick restaurant in Hazratbal.

The Hattrick food chain that has many outlets across the Valley is run by the Chowdhary Group.

“The complaint is genuine. Before this case, two days ago we had received another complaint where a customer had found a cockroach from a sandwich from another outlet of Hattrick at Sanat Nagar in the city,” said Hilal.

“We sent the food samples of the Sanat Nagar unit to an analyst, who declared the food unsafe,” he added.

The complaint about the unhygienic food has prompted the authorities concerned to launch a drive to check the quality of the food offered by the restaurants in the city, especially to tourists.

Nazir Ahmad, Deputy Controller, Drugs & Food, Kashmir, said his department had launched an extensive drive to check the hygiene of the restaurants in the city.

“We are keeping an eye on all restaurants to check whether the restaurants in Srinagar are serving quality food as per the norms laid down by the department,” he added.

Chairman of the Chowdhary group Showkat Chowdhary, however, refuted the allegations.

“I was told by my staff that the cockroach was not found in the food, but under the table,” Chowdhary said. He said the pictures circulating on the social networking sites are not real. “We are serving quality food to the people,” he maintained.