The ongoing Food and Drug Administration (FDA) crackdown appears to have made food establishments across the city look over their shoulders. Hotels and restaurants that faced action are now being re-inspected, with several found to have corrected the deficiencies pointed out earlier. Even establishments that have not faced action are maintaining hygiene including kitchens, discarding expired items, checking records and putting basic safety measures in order, wary that an inspection could bring their own shortcomings to light. R R Shah, Assistant Commissioner, FDA, shared that there is definitely an improvement in compliance among establishments after the FDA crackdown.

 

“We are now going back for re-inspections, and in many cases we have found that the establishments have taken the instructions seriously and have complied with the deficiencies that were pointed out to them earlier,” he shared. He added that an improvement notice or a suspended licence may have forced an establishment to act, but the department’s return visit is now testing whether those changes have actually stayed in place. The nature of the deficiencies is different in every establishment, so the action and the improvements required also vary from case to case. Officials say that what those changes mean could be a refrigerator that needed cleaning, a deep freezer that had been neglected, expired items that pest-control records that were not being maintained, drinking-water analysis reports that were missing, or food storage practices that needed tightening.

 

The effect of the crackdown is also being felt among establishments that have not been directly pulled up. With the department stepping up inspections, food businesses are checking their own kitchens and records, wary that what was overlooked yesterday could become a violation when an inspector walks in tomorrow. These are details that rarely enter a customer’s mind while sitting at a restaurant table - what happens behind the kitchen door where food is stored and cooked, how it is handled, whether pests are controlled and basic hygiene is maintained. For now, officials say, the early signs are encouraging.