Chennai: A hotel under Nedumangad municipal area in Thiruvananthapuram was shut down Thursday after a customer allegedly found part of a snake skin in a food parcel, local media reported.
According to a report in The Hindu, complainant Priya, a resident of Chellamcode, allegedly found the snake skin on the piece of a newspaper that had been used to pack some parottas she had bought from Shalimar Hotel in Chanthamukku. Food safety officials inspected the restaurant based on the complaint, and ordered its closure, the report said.
Arshitha Basheer, food safety officer of Nedumangad Circle, told The New Indian Express that the hotel was inspected immediately, and that it was found to be working “in a bad condition”. “The kitchen did not have sufficient lighting and scrap was seen dumped outside. The outlet was shut at once and a show-cause notice served,” she was quoted as saying.
The report said all the leftover food was sent to the laboratory, and further action would be taken based on its report. Basheer said their preliminary finding was that the dead skin was stuck to the newspaper used to wrap the food parcel. “The porotta was placed on a transparent packing paper and wrapped around with newspaper. The skin somehow came into contact with the porotta beneath,” she said.
According to her, the part of the skin was half a finger long.
The food safety department had earlier banned the use of newspapers for wrapping food items.
Quoting the municipal authorities, meanwhile, a report in The Times of India said the hotel had all the required licences.