THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The food safety officers in the district are struggling due to the rise in the number of false complaints about the quality of food served at various outlets and packaged food items.
According to food safety officers, fake complaints are registered due to personal enmity or for monetary gains.
Complaints about finding worms, dust, dirt, etc. in packaged food items are often registered with an intention to malign the reputation of a company and later the complainant bargain with the firm for withdrawing the complaint, said the officer.
Lack of mechanisms to take action against the people who waste the time of officers is also a worrying factor, added the officer.
As per the data available, over 30% of the complaints received by the food safety department turn out to be fake.
In 2020, the department had received 704 complaints, of which over 207 were found to be fake. In 2021, of the 696 complaints registered, 223 were found to be fake and in 2022 till September 30, 680 complaints have been registered, of which 252 were found to be fake.
Figures show there has been a steady increase in the number of bogus complaints registered.
Assistant commissioner of food safety, N Anilkumar, says such complaints always lead to finding some other faults in the food outlet against which fake complaints are leveled. In most of the cases, complainants vanish or their mobile phones turn off when tried to contact them after realizing that the complaint was fake.
“There was an instance where a man complained about the quality of food served at a food outlet in Varkala over an argument on the number of meat pieces in curry. As the department is not supposed to accept complaints on overcharging, such issues always end up registering a complaint on quality of food. Complaints on overcharging by food outlets have to be registered at the legal metrology department,” said Varkala FSO Praveen R P.
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