May 18, 2015

FDA seizes products worth 5.4 lakh

AURANGABAD: In a breakthrough, the Aurangabad division of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seized cans worth Rs 3.9 lakh of an energy drink from a local mall, on Thursday night. FDA officials said that the raid was conducted since the report of Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) stated that the energy drink contained 'ginseng' — an immune-stimulating agent, beyond permissible limit and was considered unsafe for consumption. 
After the FDA officials received a tip-off that the energy drink was being transported from Mumbai to Aurangabad to a mall at Paithan road, here, a raid was launched by the officials on Thursday night. Officials seized 3,930 cans of the energy drink worth Rs 3.75 crore. The officials also seized other food products such as ginger-garlic paste and apricots worth Rs 26,221," said FDA (food) joint commissioner, Chandrashekhar Solanke. 
Food safety officer Gajanan Gore said, "The ginger-garlic paste packets were found to have developed leakages and were contaminated while the dry fruits were imported but had violated the packaging and labelling norms." 
Gore said that the FSSAI had warned all the FDA regional offices about the energy drink stating that the product was found to be misleading and had an irrational combination of caffeine and ginseng. Hence, the FSSAI had recommended rejection of the product. 
The FDA also raided a bakery in the city on Wednesday and seized adulterated sugar confectioneries such as white paste and butter worth Rs 1.4 lakh. In all, the FDA seized products worth Rs 5.4 lakh in raids conducted consecutively for two days. 
The FDA has sent all the samples to a laboratory at Mumbai. 
The team included FDA (food) assistant joint commissioner Milind Shah, FSOs Gajanan Gore, Ram Munde and Gopal Kasar. 
The FSSAI had warned all FDA regional offices about the energy drink, stating that the product was misleading and had a combination of caffeine and ginseng.

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