They are said to have ordered two seven-tonne trucks full of expired food and rotting meat to be dumped at the Beetham landfill last Friday, following the latest exercise.

When contacted, Chaguanas Mayor Surujrattan Rambachan said the exercise was a co-ordinated effort between the Chaguanas Borough Corporation and the CMOH department, but referred TnT Mirror to Ali for details.

Pressed further for comment, however, he said it was part of an ongoing exercise against unscrupulous businesses and not a one-off move.

He brushed aside questions whether it was a “shake-down” merely to protect people during the usual Christmas shopping frenzy or a one-off exercise by inspectors for personal gain, as some other counties are notorious for.

Ali could not be reached for comment

It has been confirmed that the offending groceries are Food Basket of Chaguanas, Low Cost Supermarket of Southern Main Road, Cunupia, and Bob-Bots of Ramsarran Park, Chaguanas.

Truckloads of expired canned food and meat were confiscated and dumped.

The Sing-Da Restaurant of Caroni Savannah Road was closed for severe health breaches.

“This was part of continuing efforts of the Chaguanas Borough Corporation to make safe eating places throughout the borough as well as to ensure the highest level of standards by supermarket officers,” the mayor said.

Mirror has also learnt that three months ago, health officers swooped down on the producers of a brand of noodles called Sharmin out of Savannah Heights, Caroni, which was suspicious for conditions that bred pests.

Some 4,000 bags of flour used in the production of the noodles, riddled with rats and other forms of vermin, were seized.

Sing-Da Chinese Restaurant on Caroni
Savannah Road.

Bob-Bot’s Mini Mart on Ramsaran Street,
Chaguanas.

Food Basket on Endeavour Road, Chaguanas.

Low Cost Supermarket.

Bakeries are among the main culprits as well.

Earlier this year, six bakeries were closed along with a number of eating outlets.

Hi-Lo Foodstores, in Mid-Centre Mall, did not escape the glare of health inspectors, as it was given notice to work on its bakery.

“They complied because it was minor,” one well-placed source confirmed.

“Bakeries in Chin Chin have serious work to be done and one was actually closed,” Mirror was told.

The Borough Corporation has found the food sanitation situation to be so out-of-control in Central, that it recently hired the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI) to study 50 restaurants in the borough.

They are now awaiting the report “with respect to defining standards for these food outlets”.

Meanwhile, this is strike three for Food Basket, which goes by the name Food Basket International in Chaguanas and Princes Town, and by Southern Food Basket in San Fernando. Health inspectors in different counties have now busted all three locations on similar infractions.

A number of persons had to seek medical attention after allegedly dining at Food Basket’s Chaguanas eatery.