Bhubaneswar: Stepping up its food safety enforcement ahead of the festive season, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday destroyed around 120kg of unhygienic, contaminated and stale food items seized from hotels and eateries in and around Patia area.During the surprise inspection, food safety officials examined kitchens, refrigerators, food storage facilities and utensils in several hotels and found multiple violations related to food storage and hygiene standards and imposed a total penalty of Rs 16,000 on 12 establishments.Designated food safety officer Satyajit Patel said many hotels were storing cooked food in refrigerators but failing to maintain the required temperature. “Steamed rice, fried rice, paneer curry, mixed curry, dal, dal fry, spices, chutney and other cooked food items were found to be of substandard quality. Samples have been collected for laboratory testing, while stale food items were destroyed on the spot,” he added.Recently, a BMC food safety team raided a gupchup manufacturing unit and discovered stock being stored inside a latrine, triggering serious concerns over public health and hygiene practices.During that raid, officials seized nearly three quintals of rotten boiled potatoes, food colouring agents, 50 bags of gupchup, hundreds of litres of tamarind water, stale chana and used cooking oil. Authorities suspected the materials were being supplied to hundreds of street food vendors across Bhubaneswar. All seized items were immediately destroyed to prevent their sale and consumption.Patel said the civic body would continue surprise inspections across markets, restaurants and food manufacturing units during the festive season. The intensified drive aims to ensure consumers are not exposed to contaminated or unsafe food and to enforce compliance with food safety norms across the city.BMC officials have also appealed to citizens to remain vigilant and report unhygienic food handling practices to the authorities.