Fungus’ on PSI’s sweets gives city shop headache!

Ahmedabad: On the day when Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) declared that 89% of milk distributed in Gujarat is below standard, a reputed sweet shop in Ahmedabad was caught selling sweets having fungus.
J K Dangar, a sub-inspector at Gujarat University police station, was allegedly sold one kg of stale sweets by Rasranjan sweet shop near Vijay crossroads. When he went back to the police station to distribute it among colleagues, they detected fungus on top of the sweets.
"I wanted to celebrate the birth of my child today. So I went to Rasranjan and purchased one kg of white pedha worth Rs314. When I offered these to my colleagues, they complained about fungus on the same," said Dangar on Tuesday.
Dangar went back to the shop along with two of his colleagues and asked for an explanation. According to him, the person at the counter denied the fact that the sweets are stale. "He didn't give a satisfactory answer, and was not ready to give me refund as well," said Dangar. Unhappy with the answer, Dangar revealed his identity of PSI, and vented his anger. "I was very upset with the answer and took back the packet," said Dangar, who immediately called VD Patel, an AMC health inspector.
After primary investigation, Patel did find some fungus on the sweets. He asked his men to seal the samples and sent them to the laboratory for further analysis. "We have learned that they make sweets at their Naroda-based facility. We will collect samples from there as well," said Patel. However, Rasranjan authorities denied reports of fungus. "Since we put sweets inside glass counter having light bulb, some do get such fungus-like shape on the top, otherwise sweets are fine," said the shop manager.
When asked about the action to be taken, Dr Suhas Kulkarni, medical health officer of AMC said, "The adulterated food was immediately destroyed by health officials and samples available at the shop have been collected for testing. Notice has been served to the shop and further action will be taken depending upon the test reports." He further said that if results find food to be sub-standard or unsafe for human consumption, then a case will be lodged in the court. "Also, penalty will be charged and the amount of penalty can go up to lakhs of rupees depending on the level of sub-standard food for sale in the shop," he added.