Ishani and her friend visited Madras Coffee House in Connaught Place, New Delhi on March 7 for lunch. They ordered a plain dosa, but they were in for a shock when they discovered many black spots on the dosa. On closer inspection the two women found 8 cockroaches in the dosa.

Ishani asked her friend to record a video of the cockroach infested dosa. But one of the staff members came forward and took away the plate before they could finish the recording. Ishani called the police and filed a police complaint against the restaurant. The police assured the two women that they would investigate the matter.

Talking to the media, Ishani said this incident has left a bad taste on her mouth and she had a lot of doubts in her head regarding the operations at Madras Coffee House and its licence. She said she will be careful in ordering food at any restaurant now onwards. She said she would always have doubts about the level of hygiene maintained at the restaurant.

She asked did the restaurant authorities make regular visits to check their hygiene level and licences? She said she doubted it because if they did then this would not have happened. Anubhav Nanda, the manager at Madras Coffee House apologized for the incident which occurred at the restaurant.

Recently in a similar incident at a private restaurant at Selaiyur in Tambaram has come under the state food safety department’s scanner after a girl found a dead cockroach in a beverage which she had ordered there. The girl had ordered a tetrapack of flavoured milk and her parents had also filed an online complaint regarding the incident. The food safety officer of Tambaram Senthil Arumugam  told the media that a team is going to carry out an investigation of the outlet in order to find out potential violations and collect samples for testing.

New food concepts are seen every day. But not all food recipes become popular. While idlis are known for their fluffy and light taste. But nobody has thought of pairing them with apples. One such video circulating on social media shows a food vendor preparing apple idli. This bizarre combination has left the social media in shock.

The video of this dish was shared on Instagram by the handle thegreatindianfoodie. The video starts with the man slicing apples and then adds them to the idli batter. Once the cooked idlis are taken out he tops them with more apple slices . The apple idlis are served with the side of sambhar and three different chutneys.

This video has got 5419 likes on Instagram till now. Large number of comments started coming on the viral video. One social media user joked 5000 south indians got a heart attack just by watching this video. One user Satya Prakash said the two food items idli and apple were perfectly single but this man decided to murder both of them by marrying them together.

Another user Rishi warned the person making the idlis that he would be beaten up very badly for carrying out this strange food experiment. Another user said he was not south Indian but still he was feeling pain in his heart on seeing the video.

One user said the food vendor had surely gone mad. One user said he was not a south Indian still he was feeling offended and gross on seeing the video. One user Chaitanya joked that the user has forgotten mango and Nutela dressing. One user said the whole south India will be crying in one corner after watching this video. Another user was shocked on seeing the video and said kill me.  

Union Minister Giriraj Singh asked Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to put an immediate ban on Halal certificates on Food products in Bihar and gave the example of the Uttar Pradesh government. He raised concerns about an alleged link between Halal certification and potential involvement in socially discriminatory and terrorist activities.

The Union minister said there is no connection to Islamic standards and it is an attempt to Islamize products which are not related to the religion. He said institutions were becoming self proclaimed authorities in issuing Halal certificates. He accused institutions of receiving large payments from companies manufacturing the food products.

Singh said there is a large conspiracy between Halal certification and business is not unfounded. He cited the example of the Uttar Pradesh government and urged the Bihar CM to take similar measures in the state. The Uttar Pradesh government had imposed a ban on distribution and sale of certain Halal certified products which included medicines, garments and dairy.

According to a state government notification edible oil, sugar and bakery products which are labeled as Halal certified by companies which are producing them would be banned from sale and distribution. The notification said Halal certification of food products is a parallel system which creates confusion about the quality of food items.

The notification added The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is the country’s apex body which is in charge of determining standards for most food products which are sold in the country and is responsible for determining the standards food products are supposed to meet.

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman supported the move by the Uttar Pradesh government saying food certification should be done by government agencies and not by non-governmental organizations. She said food testing and food quality are essentially a government job.