Dec 15, 2012

73 tonnes of unsafe food products seized

CHENNAI: Substandard food seems to be the bane of the city. Chennai Corporation's food safety department officials on Friday seized 73 tonnes of food products from a manufacturing unit in Kodungaiyur for not having proper labels and safety marks. Officials said that most of these food products did not have a batch number, which means that they could not be tracked or their purity and safety ascertained.

The seized products are worth Rs 12.34 lakh. Officials said they seized 1,450 litres of unsafe oil, 27.2 tonnes of wafers, 34 tonnes of raw materials, and 9.62 tonnes of expired masala powder from the manufacturing unit. Officials said they have taken action against the manufacturing unit as per the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), 2006.

District food safety officer S Lakshmi Narayan said the team carried out the raid in Muthamil Nagar in Kodungaiyur based on a tip-off. "It was found that they have been selling these substandard products in various shops. There was nothing in the packaged products including batch number, expiry date or the address of the manufacture and date of manufacture," he said.

Officials said that they have sent 14 samples of items to King Institute Of Preventive Medicine in Guindy for laboratory tests. "Many children have been buying these food items because they were cheap. We have also issued a notice to the manufacturer for producing mislabeled products," the officer said.

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