PANAJI: Take a closer look while stocking up on sweets and farsan goodies this Ganesh Utsav
-a time when the peddling of poor-quality foodstuffs is rampant, the
state food and drug administration (FDA) has warned food vendors.
Stepping up its surveillance ahead of the festive season, the FDA has cast a net to nab groups bringing in adulterated, unhygenically-stored or stale foodstuff.
"Farsan-related items worth 75,000 have been confiscated during raids conducted at Margao, Navelim, Davorlim and Chimbel. Our officers found that some groups had procured large quantities of savoury snacks and were packing them with labels that claimed the food items were from Kerala and Hyderabad. In reality, we don't know where these snacks were made, and its quality was suspect," said FDA director Salim Veljee.
Apart from unlabelled farsan, the authorities also received tip-offs of a group involved in transporting 'mawa', or 'kalakhand' from Belgaum to Goa, to make sweets. Officers were posted at railway stations and bus routes, to weed out any unlicensed consignments of sweets. "These milk products were not being stored properly and could be potentially dangerous; we made sure that the consignment did not enter Goa," he added. Acting upon a complaint about foul-smelling 'kaju barfi' on sale at a sweetmart in Mapusa, food safety officers raided the shop and took the entire batch of sweets off the shelves.
The FDA also collected 26 samples from various suppliers across Goa, and tested the 'barfi', 'kaju barfi', 'pedha', 'malai barfi', 'ladoo', 'shev', 'chivda', 'shankarpali', 'wafers', 'besan ladoo', and sweets containing silver foil. "We found the samples to be of standard quality," Veljee said.
"Food vendors should also exercise their responsibility of purchasing and displaying only those food articles which are properly labelled in terms of manufacturing date, expiry date, net weight, MRP, ingredients and nutritional label declaration. Whether the item is branded or not, they should carry this information," Veljee said.
Stepping up its surveillance ahead of the festive season, the FDA has cast a net to nab groups bringing in adulterated, unhygenically-stored or stale foodstuff.
"Farsan-related items worth 75,000 have been confiscated during raids conducted at Margao, Navelim, Davorlim and Chimbel. Our officers found that some groups had procured large quantities of savoury snacks and were packing them with labels that claimed the food items were from Kerala and Hyderabad. In reality, we don't know where these snacks were made, and its quality was suspect," said FDA director Salim Veljee.
Apart from unlabelled farsan, the authorities also received tip-offs of a group involved in transporting 'mawa', or 'kalakhand' from Belgaum to Goa, to make sweets. Officers were posted at railway stations and bus routes, to weed out any unlicensed consignments of sweets. "These milk products were not being stored properly and could be potentially dangerous; we made sure that the consignment did not enter Goa," he added. Acting upon a complaint about foul-smelling 'kaju barfi' on sale at a sweetmart in Mapusa, food safety officers raided the shop and took the entire batch of sweets off the shelves.
The FDA also collected 26 samples from various suppliers across Goa, and tested the 'barfi', 'kaju barfi', 'pedha', 'malai barfi', 'ladoo', 'shev', 'chivda', 'shankarpali', 'wafers', 'besan ladoo', and sweets containing silver foil. "We found the samples to be of standard quality," Veljee said.
"Food vendors should also exercise their responsibility of purchasing and displaying only those food articles which are properly labelled in terms of manufacturing date, expiry date, net weight, MRP, ingredients and nutritional label declaration. Whether the item is branded or not, they should carry this information," Veljee said.
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