PANJIM: Department of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday confiscated over 440 kgs of artificially ripened mangoes, costing over Rs 1.20 lakh from Panjim municipal market.
FDA officials conducted a surprise surveillance drive at the municipal market for detection of mangoes being artificially ripened using chemicals and inspected consignments of almost ten wholesalers.
In the first consignment, 400 kgs of Alphonso mangoes were confiscated for being ripened artificially using the chemical ethopon. The fruit has been valued at Rs 1.20 lakh.
The consignment had been brought in a rickshaw from Vengurla in Maharashtra. The mangoes were confiscated for destruction and a case booked under Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 against the rickshaw owner.
An un-claimed consignment of Deogad mangoes ripened using ethopon chemical was also confiscated. Some 32 boxes of Deogad mangoes, each containing around a dozen mangoes, were being un-loaded from trucks that had brought them from Belgavi.
FDA also confiscated 10kgs of turmeric powder containing artificially synthetic colour, brought to ripen mangoes.
In the the past fortnight FDA had been conducting surprise surveillances visits at Panjim, Mapusa, Siolim, Margao, Vasco and Ponda markets, however, the drives did not yield much success in detection.
No comments:
Post a Comment