septic tanks too in its place it is dismal to see food materials stored in such filthy places says the health inspector rani chacko food safety officer ernakulam from the office of the assistant commissioner of food safety says that the office had conducted an inspection in a few bakeries and juice shops across kochi last week however a consolidated list of the shops being inspected will only be out by the end of the month she adds we gave a few of the juice shop owners verification notice and imposed fines we also conducted checks on the quality of water and the ice they are using she adds if the ice used in the juice is made at the houses of the shop owners proper supervision is done to check if the water has any impurity then we also check whether the person concerned has a proper certificate approved by officials if they are using cubed ice then we ask for the bills they have received from licensed companies from where they have gotten the same ice is brought in a big block crushed into small pieces and added in the juice which is not good also ice stored in thermocol box is not encouraged the water filters are also checked properly she says we also check whether the fruits used are of good quality what people can do in this regard is to find out whether the venture is sanctioned under the food safety licence act according to rani as even the roadside shops are expected to get licence and come under their purview rather than having food or drinks from random places it is always safe to go to reliable placesjuice shop owner suresh babu from thiruvananthapuram is busy serving juice to his customers even as he talks to us ever since summer has set in the number of our customers has increased by at least 50 most of the people know that we have a wide variety of fruit juice options which they themselves can customise and the fact that they trust our quality makes all the differenceanother shop owner k g jayachandran who runs a small essentials shop in kochi that also provides lime soda and cool moru has people of all backgrounds stopping by intermittently the heat is such that more and more people are coming these days and they just want to refresh their body most of my customers know me personally and are assured of the reliability he saysdr sheetal binu who is a physician at a prominent kochi hospital says that the roadside food stalls and juice shops are mostly unclean and the place where the materials are stored is often unhygienic it might be the same with regard to the way the fruits are washed or the water they are using the personal hygiene of those making the juice could also affect you i suggest that better option is to buy the fruit and make it at home or have