Used cooking oil to recycled into biodiesel: Food Safety officer

The food safety department organized a meeting with the roadside eatery owners to educate them not to be hygienic in preparing food and to avoid reusing the cooking oil which would cause health issues. He asked the eatery owners not to prepare food in open air, avoid usage of colouring agents, dispose of the wastes safely and ensure wearing of cap, apron, gloves and masks in the eateries. 

While speaking to reporters, the Food Safety Officer said, a clean street food hub would be established in Tiruchy which would ensure healthy and safe food preparation and distribution. “We have been conducting raids across the district and initiating action against those who violate the norms. In the past three months, we have sealed as many as 125 shops'', said the officer. 

He also said that the department has been initiating random checks at the tea powder used in the stalls and confiscating the substandard tea powders. 

As a major initiative, we have planned to distribute a tin to all the eateries to preserve the used cooking oil. “Thus the collected used oil would be procured and recycled into bio-diesel and this step would avoid reuse of cooking oil”, Ramesh Babu said.