In a view to curbing the health menace that the Levantine dish of Shawarma has been posing in recent times, the Tamil Nadu government has unleashed a massive raid across the state on Friday - May 6 in which the sleuths had seized hundreds of kilos of slate meat and imposed penalties to the eateries that stock such meats. 

The massive raid has come when the incidents of health issues were reported after eating Shawarma in Tamil Nadu and in neighbouring Kerala. A 16-year-old girl had died in the Kasaragod district of Kerala after eating Shawarma. On Thursday, three students in Tamil Nadu were hospitalized after eating Shawarma. Appalled by these incidents, the Tamil Nadu Food Department had launched a massive raid across the state, that was similar to the raids carried out in Kerala.

According to IANS, Tamil Nadu's Food Safety Department Officials had carried out raids in more than 1000 restaurants across the state in the places like Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, Trichy, Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, Kanniyakumari, and other districts. During the raids, the sleuths had seized slate meat including Shawarma and other cooked meat products. 

Speaking to IANS, an official said, "The raids had exhumed more than 300 kilograms of slate meat from several areas of the state and the notice was issued to all the eateries to produce all the relevant certificates, including food license and the food articles used at the eateries." During the raids, the officials had asked the eateries to disclose the medical certificates of the employees including their fitness certificates. 

The authorities had seized the meat that was cooked and stored in the refrigerator in a restaurant in Chennai and in Madurai, the team led by Jayaramapandian, the Divisional Food Safety Officer, has conducted raids at 100 restaurants and seized stale meat to check its quality. The officials had directed all the eateries that were raided across the state to produce all the licenses and certificates within a week and if they fail to produce, the eateries will be sealed and their licences will be revoked. 

An official has further said, "We have decided to conduct regular searches in all the restaurants of the state as we don't want to take any risks." Three students in Tamil Nadu are hospitalized after eating the Levantine dish. According to our sources, three students - Praveen, a native of Kanniyakumari, Paramaleswaran, a native of Pudukottai, and Manikandan, a native of Dharmapuri, are pursuing their medical studies in a veterinary college in Orathanadu, Thanjavur. 

On Thursday - May 5, all three of them had returned to the college from their respective hometowns. Upon returning, they had gone to have dinner in a fast-food restaurant in Orathanadu. They had Shawarma and come back to the college. In some moments, they began to vomit and developed giddiness. The incident was immediately reported to the college management and the local police department. The three students were rushed to the Thanjavur government hospital for further treatments.