OPEN HOUSE RESPONSE Spurious sweets: Go for zero-tolerance policy

The UT Health Department has been seizing adulterated sweets and other food items after the onset of the festival season. It is done every year, but violators go scot-free. Chandigarh Tribune asked its readers what needs to be done to ensure quality of sweets and food products

Harsher punishment for violators needed

Adulteration of material is result of difference between demand and supply, and quantum of profit margin. The legislators and Parliamentarians need to enact laws for harsher punishments to those indulging in adulteration and playing with people’s lives. News about sweets shop being raided and samples being taken are common during festive season. However, one seldom comes to know about the conviction or punishments awarded in such cases.Sardul Singh Abrawan, Chandigarh

Laws no deterrent in absence of conviction

The major reason for supply of adulterated sweets on festive occasions is lack of conviction even after getting caught red-handed. The quantum of milk product available in the market being much more than milk production in India is a clear indicator of adulteration.Wg Cdr Jasbir Singh Minhas (retd), Mohali

Conduct checks throughout the year

The authorities concerned should conduct checks to contain the malpractice throughout the year and not only during festive season. The shopkeepers want to make quick money ignoring the health risk they put their customers to.IPS Anand, Mani Majra

Hygiene is compromised all year long

It is not that sweats or food is prepared in unhygienic conditions during festival season only. The practice is followed across the year. Sadly, neither the UT Health Department nor the MC authorities find it worthwhile to check food/sweats being cooked and sold in the open in unhygienic conditions.KC Rana, Chandigarh

Food inspectors to blame

Over the years, adulteration in sweets, particularly those made of milk, during the festive season has grown manifold. More than the violators of the food safety laws, food inspectors play with the health of people.SC Luthra, MHC, Chandigarh

Stricter checks required

There should be a vigorous and strict check by health officials to ensure quality and hygiene in eateries. All food shops should display their license. The culprits should not go scot free. Moreover, punishment under the present law seems not to be a deterrent against adulteration.Aishwarya, Mohali

Strengthen Food Safety and Standards Authority

There is a need to strengthen Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. The organisation should be empowered to even ban a particular product if it does not meet the prescribed standards.Prasoon, Chandigarh

Maintain cleanliness at sweets shops

Sweets shop owners should use pure and good quality products like ghee, khoya, milk, flour, sugar, oil etc. They should ensure that any of their workers is not suffering from any infection. The workers should be dressed in whites and wear white caps. They must wear gloves in their hands while packing and handing eatables.Priya Darsh Growar, Mohali

Show no mercy to violators

No function or festivity is complete without sweets. During the festival season, there is a huge gap in the demand for sweets and its supply. To meet the demand, shopkeepers adulterate dairy products. Hygiene is sacrificed to ensure supplies on time. But who cares? There remains a need for more frequent and stringent checks by the administrative authorities. No mercy should be shown to those daring to play with health and lives of people.SS Arora, Mohali

Quality of food sold has improved

The Prevention of Public Food Adulteration Act was amended to the Food Safety and Standard Act 2006. Since the new law came into force, there has been tremendous improvement in the standard of quality of food served or sold in shops and restaurants.Sukhpal Singh, Chandigarh

Health officials to blame

Officials of the Health Department are to be blamed for sale of adulterated sweets and other food items. One wonders why they remain underground throughout the year only to surface around Diwali?Sat Pal Kansal, Chandigarh

Buyers beware!

Adulterated food should be completely banned by the administration and the violators must be dealt with strictly and penalised. Customers should also check the food before purchasing. They must also be taught ways to check adulteration.Pradyumn Gupta, Chandigarh

Say no to sweets!

The department concerned must be vested with special powers to frame charges against defaulters, fix the quantum of punishment for them, as hundreds of cases against habitual offenders are pending in the courts. A lesser number of convictions in the cases due to the prevalence of archaic laws has virtually led to the rise in cases of adulteration. On their part, people should also say no to sweets.Ramesh K Dhiman, Chandigarh

Health officials interested only in photo-op

The Health Department officials appear at the scene for photo session only during festival season. It seems that in their view, no adulteration takes place during the rest of the year. In USA, every eating joint or such establishment has to get their premises regularly inspected for hygiene.PS Bhullar, Chandigarh

Instill fear of law

A strict implementation of the Food Safety Act is needed because violators have lost the fear of law. Residents should be made aware about dangerous consequences of consuming adulterated food. There is a need to create the fear of law.Vidya Sagar Garg, Panchkula

Casual raids won’t work

Casual raids by the health authorities on eateries fail to act as deterrent against compromising hygiene required for maintaining food safety and standards. Most of the time, defaulters go scot-free because of lengthy laid down procedure for testing of food samples from the notified testing laboratories and providing evidence beyond doubt. Regular checks coupled with simplified, fool-proof procedures should be laid down.Prabhpreet Kaur, Mani Majra

Adopt zero tolerance towards offenders

For an effective check on adulteration of sweets and other eatables, a sufficient number of food inspectors and other staff should be deputed not only around festive occasions but all the year long. The authorities concerned should adopt zero tolerance policy towards offenders as they pose risk to health and lives of public.Sanjay Srivastava, Chandigarh

Cancel licence of those selling spurious sweets

Those selling spurious sweets should be punished suitably and their licence cancelled. Also, under the Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Act, consumers can approach government labs for testing of suspected adulterated food item.Dr Shruti K Chawla, Chandigarh

Send habitual offenders behind bars

The real culprits are officials of the Food and Health Department. The food inspectors are hand-in-glove with shopkeepers, who bribe them and get away with substandard sweets prepared in unhygienic environment. Licences of offenders must be cancelled. Habitual offenders must be sent to jail.Colonel RD Singh (retd), Ambala Cantt

Seizures by health officials nothing but farce

Seizure of adulterated sweets by Public Health authorities is an annual, fictitious and misleading event because neither such seizures effected any improvement in the quality of food being sold nor any violator ever got punished. And, the vicious circle of eroding public welfare continues.MPS Chadha, Mohali

Strengthen food safety cell

The provisions of Food Safety Act, 2006, are not being implemented in letter and spirit due to shortage of manpower, food testing equipment and lack of will power. The Food Safety Cell in the UT Administration needs to be given more teeth, extra manpower, particularly during the festive season, and mobile food-testing vans for on-the-spot results.Ravinder Nath, Chandigarh

Vigorous efforts needed to check adulteration

There is an urgent need to check adulteration in more serious and vigorous manner. Checking of food and sweets by officials concerned should be a regular affair and not limited to festival seasons. Officials taking samples should be properly trained, food testing laboratories be modernised and trials in cases of food adulteration should be completed quickly and in a time-bound manner.Jagdishpal Singh Kalra, Chandigarh

Publicise names of violators

Violators should not be let off with monetary penalty only, as it will certainly be not more than their day’s income. Instead, the licence of offenders should be cancelled for a specific period. During festive season, the Health Department should also publish a list of such violators in local newspapers so as to make general public aware.Upasana, Chandigarh

Ensure transparency

To break the nexus between officials and sweets shop owners, there is a greater need to improve food safety and ensure transparency in implementation of food regulations, including new Food Safety and Standards Act. Offenders should be given stringent punishment.SK Khosla, Chandigarh

Middlemen are the real culprits

Neither milk producers in rural areas nor sweets shop owners in cities indulge in adulteration to maintain their reputation. It is only the middleman who, in order to earn huge profit during festivals, takes to adulteration. Sweets suppliers should be registered with the food safety cell. Defaulters, if any, found be penalised heavily and their licence cancelled.Col. Balbir Singh (retd), Chandigarh

Empower food supplies dept officials

The Department of Food Supplies should be adequately empowered so that immediate strict action could be taken against offenders.Ujagar Singh, Chandigarh

Unaware consumers equally responsible Rajmeet Singh*

For local health authorities, food is adulterated only during the festival season, if the number of raids conducted by the authorities during this time of the year is an indication.
Still, those indulging in adulteration go scot free due to improper sampling that has resulted in a high acquittal rate. Due to poor enforcement and long procedure involved in hearing of the cases of adulteration, the entire purpose of The Food Safety and Standards Act, amended in 2011, is lost.
Statistics reveal that in the last four months, over 20 cases registered under Prevention of Food Adulteration Act have been disposed of and allegations have been proved only in one case. Around 200 cases are pending. Of the total 191 samples taken between April 2013 and March 2014, only nine samples have failed the purity test while eight have been found to be substandard and one was a case of misbranding.
Due to lack of government pressure and priority, the government agencies are rarely seen active from seizure till prosecution.
Besides, lack of awareness on the part of consumers is equally responsible for the large-scale problem of adulteration. Adulteration, be it in milk, sweets, fruits, vegetables and packed food, is still to catch consumers’ attention.
People are more concerned about food inflation or fuel price or how the government is performing but they never care about what they buy and eat daily. Adulteration is not only mixing substandard material in eatables, use of harmful pesticides in food is also a cause of concern.
The problem is widespread and increasing by the day. This is because we do not really care. Not many bureaucrats and politicians take to the streets to check this increasing menace.
The laws are all there. As usual, it is the implementation and prosecution that is found wanting. We also need to look at the western model where adulteration is seen as a serious offence that attracts heavy penalties..