Director cautions vendors and public to insist on labels and quality
A regular surveillance by the Directorate of Food & Drugs
Administration (FDA) ahead of the Ganesh festival have intercepted
consignments of food and other products with faulty labelling and
misbranding brought from Kerala and other parts of the country into the
State.
FDA Director Salim Veljee said on Tuesday that they conducted the surveillance in the last week of August.
The
FDA warned the food business community that food vendors should
exercise their responsibility to purchase and display only those food
articles that are properly labelled in terms of manufacturing date, best
before use, net weight, MRP and nutritional label.
Mr. Veljee
also advised all consumers to remain vigilant while purchasing such
sweets and snacks (farsan), and to refrain from purchasing food articles
that do not bear proper and complete product labelling.
During
this special drive, the Food Safety officers also kept a strict
vigilance over the ‘mawa/kalakand’ arriving in Goa from Belgaum, which
is used in the preparation of sweets. This is brought via railways or
bus routes.
The FDA Director said that three special raids were
conducted in Ponda, Margao (south Goa) and Mapusa (north Goa) based on
tips about arrival of suspected quality ‘mawa’ into the State. However,
the vendors returned the consignment to Belgaum, said Mr. Veljee. He was
happy that the FDA ensured the consignment did not arrive into the
State. FDA’s surveillance of such suspected activities will continue on
certain vendors to foil their malpractice attempts, said Mr. Veljee.
In
several raids conduced by FDA in Margao/Navelim/Davorlim Salcette
(south Goa) as well as in Chimbel in Tiswadi (north Goa) ahead of the
Ganesh festival, huge quantity of ‘farsan’ and sealed food articles were
confiscated from vendors who did not posses food licence. Food articles
that were not labelled as prescribed by the Food Safety and Standards
Act 2006 and the Rules/Regulation 2011.
Mr. Veljee said that goods
worth almost Rs. 45,000 were confiscated in Salcette raids and around
Rs. 30,000 in the Chimbel raids.
Cautioning the food vendors, he
said they should insist that their suppliers produce their food licence
granted under the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 before accepting
and stocking/displaying their food articles for re-sale to consumers.
The
FDA has insisted that such practice be strictly adopted by all
supermarkets, provision stores, Sahakar Bhandars, Bhagyadar stores, and
other retail outlets.
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