Educate hotel staff on safe practices for packing food, Madras HC tells Tamil Nadu govt

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the Tamil Nadu government to issue instructions to businesses, hotels and bakeries involved in packing food items to educate their employees against unsafe practices.

The court was hearing a petition by an advocate B Ramkumar Adityan who said it was a common practice to either blow or wet the fingers with saliva to open the covers used to pack the food items.

The petitioner said awareness must be created on the issue as now only eateries are allowed to sell only packed food items.

The first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy admitted the plea and observed, "These are some things we do not realise while doing it."

The court appreciated the petitioner for making this ‘good suggestion’ and directed the state government to create awareness or issue instructions to all businesses where such a practice may be in vogue.

The bench also asked the state government to instruct the management of the companies to educate the employees so that they refrain from continuing with the practice.

The court then adjourned the plea to four weeks for the state government to file a detailed report on it.