Chennai, Mar 19 (IANS): Tamil Nadu Food Department on Tuesday conducted raids at several eateries across the state.

The raids come after the death of a 13-year-old girl in Namakkal district after eating Shawarma and the advancing summer.

Food and Safety officials told IANS that the Food Department conducted searches and raids in all districts of the state. The advancing summer would lead to food products like meat becoming stale and if the freezers in the hotels not working properly it would lead to meat becoming unusable.

A Food Department official told IANS that they seized chicken varieties, mutton varieties and gobi manchurian from some hotels and have sent their samples for quality checking.

Sundarapandyan, who owns a popular hotel in Aminjikarai, while speaking to IANS said: “We are not using any colouring agents that have not been given consent by the Food and Safety Department. The Department is regularly checking us now. We all must correct ourselves as we are dealing with food.”