- By Jasreet Kaur
- Wed, 20 Sep 2023 02:51 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
A team of food safety inspectors launched investigations in Madurai district, Tamil Nadu, following the death of a 14-year-old girl due to food poisoning from chicken shawarma. Despite medical treatment, Kalaiyarasi did not survive, and her body was sent for a postmortem examination.
The incident occurred after the girl and her family consumed the shawarma, along with other non-vegetarian items, brought from a local restaurant. This prompted the state's health minister, Ma Subramaniam, to order immediate inspections of all hotels and shawarma outlets.
On Tuesday, food safety officers took swift action, conducting raids at 90 shawarma joints in Madurai. As a result of their investigations, two establishments were sealed, and approximately 70 kilogram of chicken was confiscated during the operation. It was reported that 13 other medical students fell ill after consuming non-vegetarian food from the same restaurant and were receiving medical treatment.
This incident has come to light days after a dead rat was found in the popular Bandra restaurant "Papa Pancho Da Dhaba", the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a closure notice to the eatery. Two cooks as well as the restaurant management have been taken into custody by the police. The incident occurred on Sunday night when a banker, Anurag Singh (40), of Goregaon (East), and his friend, Amin Khan (40), were dining at the restaurant. They ordered two dishes, one mutton and one chicken-based curry. They noticed a piece of meat they were eating tasted odd, and upon closer inspection, they discovered a small dead rat inside the food.