Food Safety and Standards Authority of India collects suspected spurious food samples

LUCKNOW: A bitter fact for people with sweet tooth. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has collected more than 35 suspected spurious food samples in past five days from sweetshops, restaurants, general stores and khoya-mandi in the city.

Besides sweets, even dry fruits are under FSSAI's scanner this Diwali. Officials claim the majority of food adulteration complaints were related to khoya (condensed milk) and dry fruits.

"This time, there is a spurt in complaints pertaining to sale of infested and rotten dry fruits in various shops. Of the collected, around 7-8 were of dry fruits, suspected to be of inferior quality", said JP Singh, designated officer in FSSAI Lucknow.

The authority had started a massive drive 10 days before Diwali to keep a check on spurious sweets, khoya, gram flour, lentils, fruits, species etc. The officials raided most of the sweet-shops, restaurants, general stores, food-mandis, khoya-mandi and milk factories in the city.

Normally, FSSAI collects around 30 samples in a month, majority of which are based on individual complaints. But this year, more than 35 spurious samples were collected in five days over doubt on their quality. Since the consumption of sweets, snacks and food products increases during feativals, chances of traders selling spurious material also goes up. Out of the sweet samples collected, most were detected to be containing non-edible colours which are hazardous for health. A few packed products were reported to be violating packaging norms like complete labeling of ingredients, expiry and manufacturing date, nutritional value, company's name, manufacturing address etc.

Officials confirmed that the report of collected samples will come after two weeks after being verified by the laboratory, only then they can take some against the violators.

Meanwhile, the report of samples collected in September revealed that out of 33 samples sent, 18 were found to be spurious. Singh cautions, "This is a serious a matter, I ask people to be extra careful while purchasing sweets and food from outside. They should take care of hygiene around shops and be vigilant about food they are buying."

FSSAI had also raided few very famous super markets in the city this year over complaints about infested dry fruits and adulteration in packed products like besan etc. The authority said while presence of insects and stones are easily detectable in lentils, it is difficult to trace adulteration in grounded form.

"We have noticed that many samples of besan have been found to be mixed with pea flour which is cheaper in both price and quality. Shopkeepers mix it to earn profit margin", said Singh.

A very frequent adulteration complaint is regarding khoya. Officials say that while most samples of khoya were mixed with starch in the form of arrowroot, others were found to be too stale to consume. Some lentils were also noticed to be infested with worms.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India FSSAI launched two major drives - one around Dussehra and Durga Puja and another during Dhanteras and Diwali to keep a check on rampant adulteration cases.