Kochi: Hours after Kerala Health Minister Veena George announced food safety guidelines, the food safety wing  of the Kalamassery municipality seized close to 500kg of stale chicken meat on Thursday. The raid found the meat was stored in freezers at a building at Kaippadamugal.

Sources said the facility was functioning as a centralised kitchen that supplied meat for shawarma and alfaham to various small hotels and shops in the city. 
Residents informed the food safety wing after a foul smell arose from the area and polluted water started flowing out of the property.

Officials also found 150 kg of stale oil. Meat and oil were taken to the Brahmapuram waste disposal facility.
The firm is owned by Junaiz from Palakkad.

Equipment for making shawarma has also been seized. Sources said that a few hotels have recently rejected the meat the firm supplied.