To check supply of adulterated sweets and milk items during the festive season, the Department of Food Safety will start a special checking drive from Monday. A team of four department officers will inspect manufacturing units of sweets and confectioners to check the purity of items prepared by them, said Dehradun Food Safety officer Anoj Kumar Thapliyal on Saturday.
Thapliyal said he has chalked out a plan for the festive season. The department officials will start conducting drive from October 13.
This will cover manufacturing units of sweets and shops. The officials will monitor preparation techniques and also keep a close watch over hygiene and precautions maintained by the manufacturers. The officials will be directed to take samples of milk and the milk by- products which are in great demand during the festive season.
During the festive season, the officers will be deployed at different places, including Vikasnagar Sahaspur, Chakrata, Doiwala, Dehradun city and Rishikesh.
After collecting the samples, they would send the food items to Food and Drug Testing Laboratory (FDTL), Rudrapur to have their purity checked. But as the machines meant for the purpose are not working for some time the State Government may send the collected samples to other states, including Himachal Pradesh, through the unit in Rudrapur, it is learnt.
Moreover, shortage of office staff and lack of vehicles with the department officials are negatively impacting the execution of the Food Security and Standards Act. Dehradun being the State capital and one of the big cities of Uttarakhand, the department needs at least 10 food safety officers to conduct the inspections in various manufacturing units. But only four officers are deputed to do the work presently. “Despite this, we would not be found wanting as far as implementation of the Act in the district is concerned,” he added.
Thapliyal further said that in the last one year, the department had collected 70 samples of food items from the restaurants, milk dairy, shops and other manufacturing units in the district, out of which around 30 samples were found to be unsafe or sub-standard or misbranded or containing extraneous things. The matter keeps pending in the court.
The penalty is being imposed on the food business operators who are manufacturing articles of food containing ingredients or substances which are not safe as per the said Act.
Department has issued 14, 00 licenses to the business operators whose annual turnovers are more than Rs12 lakh while around 6500 shopkeepers whose annual turnovers are less than Rs12 lakh got registered in the department.
The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 is enforced on all food business undertakings- profit, non-profit, public and private- carrying out any of the activities related to any stage of manufacture, processing, packaging, storage, import, sale, transportation and distribution of food.
Thapliyal said he has chalked out a plan for the festive season. The department officials will start conducting drive from October 13.
This will cover manufacturing units of sweets and shops. The officials will monitor preparation techniques and also keep a close watch over hygiene and precautions maintained by the manufacturers. The officials will be directed to take samples of milk and the milk by- products which are in great demand during the festive season.
During the festive season, the officers will be deployed at different places, including Vikasnagar Sahaspur, Chakrata, Doiwala, Dehradun city and Rishikesh.
After collecting the samples, they would send the food items to Food and Drug Testing Laboratory (FDTL), Rudrapur to have their purity checked. But as the machines meant for the purpose are not working for some time the State Government may send the collected samples to other states, including Himachal Pradesh, through the unit in Rudrapur, it is learnt.
Moreover, shortage of office staff and lack of vehicles with the department officials are negatively impacting the execution of the Food Security and Standards Act. Dehradun being the State capital and one of the big cities of Uttarakhand, the department needs at least 10 food safety officers to conduct the inspections in various manufacturing units. But only four officers are deputed to do the work presently. “Despite this, we would not be found wanting as far as implementation of the Act in the district is concerned,” he added.
Thapliyal further said that in the last one year, the department had collected 70 samples of food items from the restaurants, milk dairy, shops and other manufacturing units in the district, out of which around 30 samples were found to be unsafe or sub-standard or misbranded or containing extraneous things. The matter keeps pending in the court.
The penalty is being imposed on the food business operators who are manufacturing articles of food containing ingredients or substances which are not safe as per the said Act.
Department has issued 14, 00 licenses to the business operators whose annual turnovers are more than Rs12 lakh while around 6500 shopkeepers whose annual turnovers are less than Rs12 lakh got registered in the department.
The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 is enforced on all food business undertakings- profit, non-profit, public and private- carrying out any of the activities related to any stage of manufacture, processing, packaging, storage, import, sale, transportation and distribution of food.
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