Agriculture Minister seeks hotel food tests

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Guests fill plates at a hotel in this file photo. The gov’t seeks tight regulation. Hürriyet photo

Ahead of the summer tourism season, products like honey should be tested in all inclusive menus at Turkish hotels offering cheap, all inclusive packages, the Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker said on March 30.

Eker said that in places popular with tourists, like Antalya, there is a danger that at hotels with all inclusive menus, food quality standards could be lowered.

“We want stricter controls at these hotels,” he said, adding that the government carries out periodic food testing throughout the country and penalizes those guilty of supplying sub-standard food products, which are then confiscated. Eker said that companies found to be producing imitation or sub-standard food items would henceforth be singled out and more severely punished.