Indian restaurant shut down after customer finds snake skin in food

Licence of eatery has since been revoked by the authorities

A snake charmer charms a snake in India (EPA)

A restaurant in India's southern state of Kerala has been closed down temporarily after a woman and her daughter found a snake skin in their food.

The woman, identified by her first name Priya in local media reports, discovered the snake skin wrapped in the paper used to pack the porotta (layered flatbread) she had bought from a hotel restaurant in Thiruvananthapuram's Nedumangadu area.

The mother and daughter had bought two pieces of the flatbread and some sauce to eat for lunch on Thursday afternoon. When the mother started eating the bread after her daughter had finished her share of the food, she discovered the snake skin on the wrapping paper.

Ms Priya approached the local police, who directed her to food safety officials. Acting on her complaint, the local municipal authorities conducted an inspection and shut down the eatery.

“We inspected the hotel immediately. It worked in a bad condition. The kitchen did not have sufficient lighting and scrap was seen dumped outside. The outlet was shut at once and a show-cause notice served," Arshitha Basheer, the food safety officer for Nedumangad, told The New Indian Express.

"Our preliminary finding is that the dead skin was in the newspaper used for packing the food,” the officer added.

She explained that the flatbread was placed on transparent packing paper and wrapped around with newspaper. “The skin somehow came into contact with the porotta beneath. The skin piece was half a finger long,” she told the Indian daily.

The municipal body, said that the restaurant was conducting business with the required licence and there was otherwise "nothing wrong" with the stocked food. Its licence has now been revoked following the incident.