Tangra: A family that went to dinner at a restaurant near Tangra on Friday found a cockroach in a fried rice dish.

The family lodged a complaint with Pragati Maidan police station, based on which the manager of the restaurant-cum-bar and the man who served the dish were arrested.

Manager Nanda Das, 35, and service boy Soumitra Jana, 28, were arrested on the spot on the charges of adulteration - a section that attracts a maximum punishment of six months in jail and/or a fine of Rs 1,000 .

Rajat Paul, a resident of Bijoygarh, had gone to China Pearl in Tangra's Mateswartala Road area with six of his family and friends, the police said.

"Around 8.30pm, Paul's wife Satarupa Das spotted a cockroach in the remains of the fried rice on her plate," an officer said. The cockroach was about an inch long and its scales were missing, the officer said. "It was white in colour and difficult to make out."

Das raised the alarm and the manager apologised and offered to waive off the family's bill of Rs 5,000. The family turned down the offer and filed the complaint.

Utpal Roy Chowdhury, food technologist and former head of the food technology department in Jadavpur University, told Metro that the cockroaches found in India were "extremely toxic and can lead to multiple complications".

"A lot of research work has been done on cockroaches. Eating them could result in vomiting, diarrhoea, allergies, breathing problems and even death," he said.

The police seized the plate of fried rice on which the cockroach was found and have sent it for forensic examination.