Inspection drive by FDA team in Goa did not find any major sanitation lapses
Apart from minor lapses of sanitation and other things
on the premises where midday meal food was being cooked by self-help
groups , inspection teams of the State Food and Drugs Administration
(FDA) on Thursday found a couple of instances of SHGs in Canacona in
south Goa sub-letting their midday meal food preparation to
un-authorised persons at unlicensed premises.
Responding
to the rising cases of food-poisoning and other complaints over midday
meal scheme across the State, Food Safety Officers (FSOs) of FDA
continued their inspection drive of the various SHGs involved in the
supply of midday meals to various schools.
Three
teams of FSOs on Thursday conducted such inspections of the SHGs located
in Bicholim, Sanquelim, Assonora, Karaswada, Pirna, Colvale, Tivim,
Revora, Sanguem, Quepem and Canacona areas and a total of 20 SHGs
premises were inspected in the early hours of the day from 6 a.m. to 1
p.m. to check their activities during the cooking operation and also
verify their sanitation and hygienic conditions while preparation of the
midday meal.
FDA Director Salim A. Veljee told
The Hindu
on Thursday that although the inspection drive did not find any major
lapses of sanitation on the part of the various SHGs, minor defects of
improper raw materials storage, lack of soak pit, tiles required on the
kitchen walls and overall cleanliness required at the raw materials
storage area were observed by the officers and the SHGs have been
strictly advised to rectify the same and submit their compliance report
within a week’s time.
The inspection drives have also
been carried out at the request from the Education Department, he said
and proposed to forward them the reports of these inspections.
FDA
had conducted earlier on July 13 similar surprise visits to 32 SHGs in
various pockets of the State. “So far we have completed the drive
against 61 SHGs since June and inspection at the remaining 20-odd SHGs
shall be completed in the next two days and thereafter in the early next
week all reports would be forwarded to the Director of Education for
their information and action,” said Mr. Veljee. This would be in
addition to notice ordering improvement issued by the FDA, he said.
Giving
details of the inspection, he said that it was observed that at
Canacona two SHGs, namely, Surabhi SHG and Astha SHG located at
Kotegaon, Canacona in south Goa had sublet their tender for the supply
of midday meals to Roshan Gaonkar and Ramda Gaonkar, both at Kotegaon,
Canacona. They were found preparing the midday meals on their premises
which were not licensed under the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 and
as such SHGs have been directed to immediately stop illegalities.
The raid comes in the wake of rising cases of food-poisoning over midday meal scheme
So far we have completed the drive against 61 SHGs since June, says an official
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