Restaurant Inspections: Madras High Court Restrains Food Safety Officers From Taking Media Along

Justice R Suresh Kumar observed that taking television crew to the kitchens even before the samples were collected was improper.

The interim orders came on a plea filed by Chennai Hotels Association seeking direction to the The Designated Officer, Department of Food Safety and Drug Administration,(Food Safety Division) to conduct inspection at hotels and restaurants by following the procedure laid down in the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006.

The association submitted instances where the officer had commented about the quality of food and had given reports/orders/interviews without even sending the sample for food analysis. Thus, he was conducting inspections not in accordance with the law.

It was further submitted that Section 42 of the Act clearly specified the manner in which prosecution was to be initiated.

However, the food safety officer had clearly failed to follow this procedure, the court was told. It was further submitted that the officer was engaging these media channels for his own publicity and that his agenda was to tarnish the hard earned reputation and goodwill of well known hotel brands.

The judge agreed with the submission of the petitioner that the Officer could engage a private cameraman instead.

The court also orally observed that even though many inspections were carried out, only a few were prosecuted. This would show that the success rates in these cases was very poor, it added,

Case Title: The Chennai Hotels Association v. The State of Tamil Nadu and others

Case No: WP 26652 of 2022