Food departments of two upscale hotels in Malawi’s capital Lilongwe—Peacock Hotel and Pacific Hotel– were seen serving food in the afternoon of Wednesday defying a Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) order issued in the early hours of the day closing the two hotels for serving sub-standard food.

According to MBS officials who took part in the closure exercise, the food departments of the two hotels were closed after MBS noted that the food served were not of the standards that MBS recommends.

“I cannot say… but yes, we’ve closed down the food departments at Pacific Hotel and Peacock Hotel,” an MBS official said when asked about the incident.

Asked why the food departments were operational despite the closure order, one official who did not want to be named told The Maravi Post that they know nothing about the MBS closure order as they have not received it neither from MBS or any other authority.

Meanwhile, MBS has not publicly commented on the two hotels’ continued operation in the face of the closure order.

Peacock Hotel is owned by a Chinese while Pacific Hotel is owned by an Asian.