500kg Stale Chicken, Prawns Seized: Why Kolkata’s Big Boss Restaurant Was Shut

The civic body’s action was part of a wider food safety drive covering eateries, sweet shops and bakeries in Calcutta and other parts of Bengal, including Panagarh, Arambagh and Bhadreswar.

Some of the items had turned into frigid chunks and were difficult to remove from the packets because they had become hard, the official said, suggesting months of refrigeration.

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Key points generated by AI, verified by newsroom

• KMC temporarily closed Big Boss for stale meat seizure.
• Officials found unlabelled, stale meat, suspended restaurant's license.
• Raids part of statewide food safety drive uncovering irregularities.

Popular Chinese restaurant Big Boss in Kolkata’s Tangra was temporarily closed by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on Wednesday after its food safety wing seized around 500kg of stale raw chicken and prawns during an inspection, officials said.

The civic body’s action was part of a wider food safety drive covering eateries, sweet shops and bakeries in Calcutta and other parts of Bengal, including Panagarh, Arambagh and Bhadreswar.

Food safety officials said they found gross irregularities at several establishments during the inspections. In one instance, a sweet shop in Hooghly’s Arambagh was found using Holi gulaal to colour sweets.

Stale Meat Found Without Expiry Tags

A senior official in the KMC health department’s food safety wing said the chicken and prawns seized from Big Boss were stored in plastic packets and bags without tags showing their packaging and expiry dates.

Some of the items had turned into frigid chunks and were difficult to remove from the packets because they had become hard, the official said, suggesting months of refrigeration.

“Around 500kg of stale chicken and prawns were seized during the raid at Big Boss. Some samples were taken to laboratories for tests. The rest was taken to Dhapa in a mini-truck and buried in keeping with norms,” a senior official of the KMC’s health department said.

“There were no tags showing dates of expiry on any of the packets containing chicken and prawn. We have decided to temporarily suspend the licence of Big Boss.”

Restaurant Owner Denies Prolonged Refrigeration

One of the owners of Big Boss denied that the restaurant had kept the meat refrigerated for a prolonged period.

“We don’t have to store chicken or fish for long because of high consumption. Around 50-60kg of chicken and 20-30kg of fish are consumed every day. On weekends, it is even higher,” he told the television channel ABP Ananda.

KMC health department officials said the civic body’s food safety rules, which are aligned with those of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, prohibit storing prepared or semi-cooked food without FSSAI dating tags.

Officials also said uncooked food and raw chicken should carry these tags.

“The Big Boss owners are aware of the food-and-safety standards that need to be followed under the Food Safety and Standards Act. Fines can range from Rs 50,000 to Rs 3 lakh, and licences can be suspended in case of violations,” an official said.

Food Safety Teams Conduct Raids Across Bengal

The raids came a day after chief minister Suvendu Adhikari raised concerns about adulteration while launching a statewide food safety week from September 1 to 8.

On Tuesday, food safety officers raided a restaurant in Madhyamgram, around 20km north of Calcutta, and seized rotten raw chicken from refrigerators.

Around the time KMC officials were inspecting Big Boss, another team conducted raids at several eateries in Hooghly’s Arambagh.

At a sweet shop, the team found Holi gulaal allegedly being passed off as artificial food-grade colour, said Jadunath Hembram, a food safety officer.

Earlier Meat Adulteration Racket

In April 2018, inspections in Calcutta and its adjoining districts had led to the busting of a racket that allegedly collected animal carcasses from municipal dump yards, chemically treated the rotten meat and sold it to restaurants and department stores.