Kollam (Kerala), Jun 4 (PTI) The Food Safety Department in Kerala on Saturday seized around 500 kg of stale fish from fishing boats at Neendakara harbour near here and destroyed it.

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The inspection conducted early morning under "Operation Matsya", was launched by the Kerala government to detect adulterated fish.

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The food safety inspectors found around 500 kg of stale fish stored inside containers of the boats.

"Two squads of the food safety department conducted inspections today. We examined the boats and found stale fish. Samples have been collected and sent to the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology for testing," a senior official of the food safety department told the media.

The inspections were led by food safety inspector S Aji. The samples were collected to test the presence of chemicals in the fish.

The inspection was based on a tip-off that stale fish was being sold in areas around the harbour, sources said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)