Agra: Tourists have two things on their wish list when they visit the city: see the Taj Mahal and buy petha sweets. But reputation of Agra pethas has taken a severe beating as Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA) officials found nearly 300kg of the product sold in local shops across the city to be stale.
During the first phase of crackdown, FSDA found that some shops, besides selling stale sweets to unsuspecting tourists, were using aluminum instead of silver foil (warak) on their product. Consumption of aluminium poses health hazards.
The FSDA has collected seven samples from various shops in the last two months. They have sent them to the divisional food analysis lab at Lucknow and Varanasi.
The food quality watchdog started investigating the quality of pethas in the city after a leading sweetmeat chain in the city complained of various shops mushrooming in the city by misappropriating their brand name. They said people had opened fake outlets and were selling substandard sweets to unsuspecting tourists. As per law, misbranding can draw a fine of up to Rs 10 lakh.
FSDA officials raided various shops in Agra Cantonment, Tajgang, Sadar and Balugang. They said they would begin another phase of crackdown on petha shops shortly. They said they will begin their second pase of crackdown shortly to uphold the quality of sweets.
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