Oct 1, 2019
OPEN HOUSE HOW TO CHECK SALE OF SPURIOUS & ADULTERATED SWEETS? Customer awareness can go a long way
Most traditional sweets are prepared with milk and ghee, which are the most adulterated food items during festivals.
Festival time is a time of celebration and is incomplete without sweets. But now-a-days, many sweetshop owners adulterate sweets. Food adulteration has become a major cause of concern. Regular raids and alert vigilance should be made by the Health Department during the festive season. A heavy fine should be imposed on factories or shops where adulteration takes place.
Khushboo Singla
Don’t compromise on qualityThe government should earmark mandatory quality standards to be followed by all sweets makers. As a customer, we should remain vigilant regarding the spurious and adulterated sweets. We should try to purchase branded or ISI marked products. Government should enforce strict rules. It should provide quality check scales so that customers can purchase the products after checking the quality. Food adulteration should be considered a criminal offence and the government should award death penalty to those who play with the precious lives. We must try to find out the substitutes of milk products with same nutritional values. Government should keep a close eye on interstate supplies. They should properly check the products coming from other states so that culprits can be detected at the earliest. Children should be kept safe from these eatables. Special tribunals must be set up for speedy redressal of grievances in the festive season. Ritu Priya
Cancel licences of erring shopkeepersIndia is a land known for its festivals, and the sweets are an important part of the celebrations. Since sweets are the most loved food items during festivals, sometimes the residents have to consume inedible food items in which shopkeepers deliberately add substances that cause serious health problems. In this process, the sweets shops often compromise on the quality of the sweets, especially the milk-based items. In order to rake in huge profits, they use milk-containing urea, detergents and chemical whiteners, khoya having paper or starch and ghee enriched with vanaspati or animal fat. As silver is expensive, shopkeepers widely make use of the aluminium foil as ‘vark’ in their sweets. However, the FSSAI has made strong laws against adulteration, but it is still not stopping the small vendors and businessmen from cheating the customers. The FSSAI should conduct regular raids during festive season. Those found guilty should be punished. Their license needs to be cancelled and they should be imposed with heavy penalities so they do not dare to play with the lives of innocent people. Awareness among general public regarding the harmful effects of adulterated sweets needs to be created. Rishika kriti
Make sweets at home
Festive season calls for greed of shopkeepers and they indulge in malpractices by compromising the quality of sweets. Instead of relying on retailers, one should resort to homemade goods which could be altered to taste and quality standards. This would drop the demand of sweets at sweetshops and act as a warning to sellers to strive to stop adulteration.
Krishna
Inspect food & sweetshops
Festivals are incomplete without sweets. Adulterated food items increase in the market during festive seasons. There are some ways by which the sale of spurious and adulterated sweets can be checked. The food department can divide areas to inspect sweet shops. The authorities should also raid those locations where sweet items are prepared. The guilty should be punished accordingly. Preparation of milk-based items should be checked thoroughly before and during the festive season. Consumers should also check sweet samples before purchasing the product.
Mehak Bajaj
Educate consumers
Food adulteration is the cheapest way to earn profits during festive seasons. The problem can be tackled by educating consumers. Government should install purity check machines at dairies and sweetshops. Media can play a vital role in the checking of adulterated products with the help of vigilant reporting. The Health Department should conduct random raids to end this menace. A consumer also needs to make smart choices to avoid such unfair trade practices. One should always taste or smell the sweets before buying in bulk. Stale products emit a smell and taste slightly sour.
Muskan Rehan
Imposing heavyfines on guilty
A heavy fine should be imposed on factories and shops where adulterated food items are found. Consumers should also be made aware of their rights under the Consumer Protection Act. The Health Department inspectors should collect samples of milk products and get them analysed. People can check milk quality on their own using milk-testing kits available in the market. Consumers should be careful while buying sweets from sweetshops during festivals.
Navneet Kaur
FSSAI should play a pivotal role in inspection
Under the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI), punishment must be given to the people found guilty of adulterating food. Before buying the product, consumers should check the product themselves. Government must take proper steps for protecting the interest of consumers. Proper check must be kept not only by the government but also by the authority off the FSSAI and consumers.
Manpriya Kaur
Take strict action
An area should be divided among health inspectors to collect samples of sweets from sweetshops. An effective way to check adulteration is that food supply officers should visit sweet shops as customers and buy sweets to get them analysed. Strict actions should be taken against the shopkeepers who sell adulterated sweets. The Health Department should aware customers about adulteration in sweets and various food items through press and social media and vigilant reporting.
Prabhsimran
Create anti-adulteration task force
Food adulteration is common nowadays. An anti-adulteration task force should be created. A heavy fine and punishment should be imposed on culprits. Customers should also report the guilty to consumer courts. Regular raids and alert vigilance should be made by the Health Department during the festive season.
Gursahib Singh
Look for safety marks on milk packets
In India, most of the traditional sweets are prepared with milk and ghee. These two products are the more vulnerable to be adulterated. Pasteurised packed milk can be used to prepare sweets at home. Sweets prepared with natural ingredients must be preferred. Artificially-coloured and flavored sweets must be avoided. Purchase sweets and milk from authorised dealers only. Always insist on AG mark and FPO license on milk and packed ingredients used.
Amarpreet
Establish monitoring agency
In today’s world, every bussinessman is in a race to reap maximum profits by adopting any means and methods. The easiest way to reap profits in the food business is adulteration, whether it is in oil, milk or ghee. The biggest victims of such foul practices are consumers. The menace of food adulteration needs to be curbed. Municipal Corporation should establish a monitoring agency deal with adulteration. There must be periodical inspection of those who are dealing in food business. Heavy fine should be imposed on those who are guilty. A certificate of food standard must be issued by the agency to sweetshops and food shops owners.
Farzana Khan
Special vigilance during festive seasons
Festive season is about to come and this will lead to consumption of sweets in huge quantities. Food officers should survey all shops and check the quality of material which is used by shopkeepers in making various sweets. Specific areas should be allocated to them so that they can check food samples easily and take strict action against those who indulge in adulteration of sweets.
Jagjit Kaur
Consumers should report discrepancies observed
During festivals, the sweet shopkeepers in order to meet the demand of customers, compromise the quality of sweets. They make easy and big profits while the health of public is subjected to risk in this process. The adulteration of sweets must be checked. Our government and Municipal Corporation need to check the suppliers of adulterated sweets. They must keep an eye on sweet manufacturing shops, factories and food shops. People must be made aware of chemical tests that can be used by them to check adulteration in sweets. If people are able to test the purity of sweets being sold at their own, they can easily report any discrepancies to the Health Department. An officer must be appointed in every major area for inspection every week during festive seasons. These approaches will help in curbing adulteration practices.
Kamaldeep Kaur
Work tirelessly on“zero tolerance”
Due to soaring prices and addition of sub-standard materials to sweets, they no longer remain that sweet. Every year, authorities of the Health Department conduct raids but to no avail. These raids only occur at two levels, collection of samples and sending the same to testing laboratory. That’s why adulteration of sweets has progressed from being a simple means of fraud to highly sophisticated and lucrative business. As the adulteration pattern is changing every year and newer adulterants and contaminants have entered the markets of Indian cities, the authorities are yet to find incidences of adulteration along with quantification. Though enough parameters are in force, but pioneering and tireless efforts are required to weed out the seeds of adulteration from various segments of marketing. Besides, a need is there to set aside an inclination to favour some person or group and to open the lock of zero tolerance with the key of strictness on the basis of legislation.
Ravi Chander Garg
Surprise checking to serve the purpose
Strict action like cancellation of the licence by the Food Department can bring such actions to a halt. The Food Department should create various teams to inspect the sweet shops. Surprise checking and strict actions can bring an end to such practice. The license of the culprits should be cancelled for playing with the health of the people. Such an action would teach others a lesson and they would not dare to indulge in any such activity.
Ekroop Kaur
Do-it-at-home tests to check spurious items
During the festive season, adulteration in sweets becomes a common affair. In India, the silver ‘vark’ on the sweets mostly contains aluminum. The government has provided a food officer to every state and he is authorised to check the safety of food. If the product found by him contains some harmful substance, he has every right to stop its manufacturing. The products most likely to be found adulterated include milk, ghee, and khoya. To check adulteration in milk, take some milk in a spoon and leave it on a slanting plate if it leaves white tail, it is pure. For ghee, place some of it on your palm. If it starts melting quickly, then it is real ghee. To check the silver ‘vark’, touch it with your finger. If it feels harsh and comes on to your finger, it may be fake. Also check the hygiene standards of the sweets shop.
Amanpreet
Put food safety teams on high alert
Shopkeepers and vendors are playing with the health of people. During festivities, the demand for milk and by product such as khoya and ghee goes up tremendously which leads to increase in adulteration. These things happen because of shortage of milk. The Food Department can divide the areas to check the dairy products and sweets shops. Fine and punishment should be awarded to those who adopt such practices to earn more profit.
Shiwani
Adulterated sweets a thriving business
Unhealthy business of sweets shops thrives easily ahead of the festive season. The race of minting money by using shortcuts and it takes the form of competitions among different competitors. There must be only one government agency to control the supply of raw material to the owners of sweet shops. Various government agencies should take samples of the food items which are being sold by shopkeepers. If after this any food item particularly sweet is found to be adulterated, officials of these agencies should be held responsible. By remaining vigilant, consumers can prevent unhealthy items from acting as a spoiler. Content of different items which are used in each gram of sweet should be mentioned on the packaging box. Workers packing the sweets should wear clean dresses. They must wear gloves while packing food items. At the time of packing sweets they should not chew tobacco or any other intoxicant item. Hygienic standards at the sweets shop should also be maintained. Shopkeepers should display the norms of the Food Safety and Standard Act in their shops. If anyone is found guilty to sell adulterated sweets, he should be fined heavily. Shopkeepers should refrain from making use of such malpractices to earn money.
Dr Mohd Saleem
Conduct regular raids
The festive season is fast approaching and this is the time when most of the adulteration takes place. To check such activities, raids should be carried out beforehand. The shops must be inspected properly not only during festivals but also at regular intervals so that the shopkeepers remain under a check.
Muskan Arora
Officials hand-in-glovewith culprits
Festivals are a time for merry - making. Some money-minded people do not hesitate to play with the lives of innocent citizens. It is just the beginning of the festivities with Dasehra round the corner. Everything goes on with impunity. Last year, 60 per cent of the milk food samples seized in Punjab raids had failed the quality test. Food Safety Officers and other officials were found to be hands-in-glove with the culprits. Even the State Food Lab is under the scanner for approving the sale of the spurious items. Warning bells are ringing. It is time that the government started tackling this problem and that too with concrete results. The whole system needs to be streamlined. Stringent action is the need of the hour. The sale of unhealthy food items should not be allowed to act as a spoiler for the people during the festive season.
Bir Devinder Singh Bedi
Make use of DIY hacks to ensure quality
Adulteration is a practice followed during festivals which is a dangerous to our health. The milk is adulterated with detergent or urea, khoya with starch and so on. To curb the practice of adulteration, there is a need to properly execute the laws like Prevention of Food Adulteration Act. Checks must be conducted at different food shops. The punishment must be imposed on all the culprits, whether rich or poor. The checks are required not only during festivals, but throughout the year. One can also make use of the DIY hacks to check spurious items.
Manmohan Kaur
Enforce e-challanon defaulters
Most of the times, consumers suffer because of the ignorance on the part of consumers and lack of checks on these suppliers. Consuming a healthy and a balanced diet, bereft of junk and processed foods, is the right of every citizen of the country. We can avoid diseases and live a healthy life by becoming more vigilant. Inspections and raids by food inspectors are just occasional. The Municipal Corporation and local government should check fruits and must keep an eye on the sweets manufacturing shops. Street food vendors should be given cards on which inspection data is marked every week. E-challaning for defaulters should come into force. Efforts should be made to develop facilities for the testing of sweets samples locally instead of sending them elsewhere. The present laws on food adulteration need to be implemented in the letter and the spirit to deter the anti – social elements from following unethical ways of doing business. Consumers themselves should make healthy choices for themselves.
Dr Jasdeep Kaur
Train consumers tocheck adulteration
Any Indian festival is incomplete without sweets. Adulteration of food items increases during the festive season. Milk, khoya and coloured food products are the most adulterated food items during the festivals. To look into the matter, a workshop-cum-training session should be conducted at various schools and institutions to train people to check adulteration themselves easily. Before buying any sweets, the consumers should check thickness, softness and smell of the sweets. Sweets having silver vark on them should be checked with accuracy as they are mostly replaced with aluminium foil. Consumers should check cleanliness and hygiene conditions of the shop before buying sweets.
Kartika Singh
Apprise residents about their consumer rights
With festive season coming up, markets will be being with adulterated sweets. The authorities of the Health Department should take strict steps, send investigation teams and penalise the defaulters. As a consumer, one should make sensible use of their rights. Only then the problem of adulteration can be curtailed.
Japkirat
Check silver varkon sweets
In India, festivals are welcomed with full vigour, and with it, sale of spurious and adulterated sweets also increases. To avoid this, government should appoint officials for regular inspection of shops. Clean and safe ingredients should be used by shopkeepers. In addition to this, customers should be responsible before buying sweets. They should ensure that the silver vark on the sweets is not aluminium foil and smell them to make sure that the sweets are not stale and emit a fowl smell.
Gurvir Kaur
Divide city to ensure thorough checking
Problem of spurious and adulterated sweets during the festive season is not new when the demand for sweets is quite high. Adulterated food impacts people’s health adversely. Thus, it becomes imperative to maintain a check on adulteration. Special provisions by the government must be made such as dividing the city amongst health officers for checking so that all major sweet shops are covered. Also, proper checking equipment must be made available to health officers for thorough checking. Every shop must get samples approved. Heavy fines must be imposed for those indulging in adulteration. Prior the festive season, visits to check cleanliness and hygiene must be made.
Akrita Budhiraja
OPEN HOUSE COMMENT
Preventive and timely control need of the hour
Minna Zutshi
Adulteration of sweets is very common in the festive season when the demand for sweets soars. Adulteration of food may be defined as “the addition or subtraction of any substance to or from food so that the natural composition and quality of food substance is affected”. Adulterants in sweets include colours that are not food grade and are even potentially toxic, ingredients that are spurious and that mar the quality of food. Adulteration may lead to food impurity, contamination and allergens. To check adulteration, preventive control, inspection and compliance are required. Usually, by the time a sample is collected for purity test, the food is already out in the market and even if it fails the test, the consumers have no way of knowing this. In such a scenario, the power of instituting a mandatory recall can be effective. Imposing stiff penalties on the guilty and also boycotting those found adulterating food items is the need of the hour. The district administration must deal with iron hand those guilty of food adulteration.
Hyderabad man gets cockroach in Sambar
Hyderabad: A 25-year-old graphic designer from Hyderabad was in for a shock on Wednesday when he found a cockroach in his food delivered by Swiggy. Shali Hussain, a Madhapur resident, claimed that he found the roach in the idly-sambar from Minerva Coffee.
Sharing the incident, Shali Hussain told NewsMeter, “On Wednesday, I ordered idly-sambar from Minerva Coffee Shop through Swiggy. My friend opened the sambar and dipped the idly to find something suspicious. Initially, we thought it was a curry leaf, but, we realised that it was a cockroach. We were lucky to have noticed it. What would have happened if we were in a hurry? Due to the bad experience, I was unable to have anything for the whole day.”
He further added that this experience made them avoid outside food. However, they also admitted that being working professionals, cooking is complicated. “If a place like Minerva serves food like this, I don’t know whom to trust. Swiggy responded and apologised for the experience and gave us the link to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and asked us to mail to them. While we have already done that, Swiggy has not yet removed Minerva from their service. That’s the least they could do, at least this particular branch.
Annoyed Shali Hussain took to Twitter to express his anger. He tweeted, “Minerva Coffee Shop. Found a Cockroach in Delicious Healthy Sambar From #MinervaCoffeeShop, Madhapur, #Hyderabad. Ordered this morning from @swiggy_in. Worst response from @SwiggyCares (sic).”
Minerva Coffee Shop
Found a Cockroach in Delicious Healthy Sambar From #MinervaCoffeeShop, Madhapur, #Hyderabad. Ordered this morning from @swiggy_in
Worst response from @SwiggyCares
In a similar incident, a Hyderabad resident was served non-vegetarian food instead of a vegetarian meal. Aruna Prasad, a Hyderabad resident, ordered butter paneer rice bowl and instead received chicken.
Food safety team collect samples
Ludhiana, September 29
Under Tandrust Punjab mission as per direction of the Commissioner (Food safety) a team comprising designated officer, Dr Andesh Kang, and food safety officer Yogesh Goyal inspected shops selling milk and milk products on the Gill road. The team took sample of desi ghee.
On a tip-off, the team also inspected a milk plant adjoining Reliance petrol pump. The plant owned by Chinnu Chawla and Amit Monga makes paneer and ghee, which are supplied to Himachal Pradesh and nearby districts.
Four quintals of paneer, four-and-a-half quintal of ghee and empty tins of refined oil and vansapati were found at the plant, which was working in unhygienic conditions. The team took three samples of paneer and one sample of ghee from the plant. “The pant owners supply paneer in a modified car bearing registration No. PB05 U7750,” said Dr Kang.
The team also inspected Sukh Dairy running inside Sangeet Cinema, Partap Chowk, and took two samples of paneer. All samples were sent to the state lab for analysis and action would be taken as per reports.
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