Food adulteration cases in Jmu

Food adulteration cases in Jmu

Violators escape action in absence of testing facility
Arun Singh
Jammu, Nov 22: Due to the delay in getting results of food samples picked up by Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) from the restaurants and the shops in Jammu division, it gives enough time to the defaulters to escape from the legal action.
There is only one laboratory in the region to test the samples and due to the unprecedented increase in the cases of food adulteration in the winter capital of the State, it becomes extremely difficult to get the results in time.
Sources in the department told Rising Kashmir that as per the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) Act-2008, JMC failed to setup its own food-testing laboratory, the corporation has to depend on the Food and Drug Laboratory established within the Regional Research Laboratory (RRL), which is the only laboratory in the region.
The laboratory is regulated by both Union Health Ministry and State Health Ministry, they added.
They further said that the laboratory is well equipped with the modern gadgets to test all kind of food items.  However, hundreds of samples are sent to this laboratory from across the Jammu region for testing on daily basis, which make it overburdened and consequently results are delayed and that also delays the legal action against the violators the JMC could initiate, they added.
“The maximum time which has been fixed by the laboratory for giving results has been fixed at 14 days which gives sufficient time to the violators to escape from the legal action,” said an inside JMC source.
Health wing of JMC is intensifying its anti adulteration drive at all the restaurants , sweetshops and other places where food is served, but due to the insufficient testing facilities in the region lots of efforts of JMC are wasted,  sources said.
They further added that Consumers Affairs Public Distribution (CAPD) Department also conducts anti adulteration drives and sends the samples to the same laboratory and they face the same problem of not getting the results in time.
Health Officer JMC, Dr Vinod Sharma, when contacted told Rising Kashmir that “Food and Drug laboratory at RRL has very small set up and cannot cater to the bulk of samples due to the inadequate staff and many others reasons well known to the concerned authority”.
“We have to face many problems to take legal action against the defaulters. However, we seize adulterated food items and impose heavy fine on the violators on the spot,” he added.
He further said that Additional Deputy Commissioner has an authority to impose the fine from Rs 5000 to Rs 5 lakh.