NAGPUR: Retail giant Big Baazar was found to be running a bakery on its Ramdaspeth premises without proper permissions in place. While the company has a license for running a restaurant in the building, it didn't have the necessary permissions required under the Food Safety and Standards Act of India (FSSAI). The perishable goods in the bakery were also found without appropriate information about their shelf life.
NGO Anti Adulteration Consumer Society found the violations when its members took up a routine check of the bakery on Friday. They found that products like white bread, bar chocolate cake and chilli coriander bread didn't have the essential best before date imprinted on their packages. They immediately informed officials from Food and Drug Administration (FDA) who conducted an enquiry into the complaints on the same day.
"We found that some of the bakery items had a best before date in an improper format. We have taken samples and sent them for analysis. The bigger problem was that they had the licenses in place for running a restaurant and were running the bakery as part of the restaurant. The rules require separate permissions for them both," said food safety officer Praveen Umap who along with fellow officer Abhay Deshpande conducted the raid.
"Bakery items are perishable even if kept in fridge, which makes the best before and manufacturing dates necessary as per FSSAI norms. Their absence can create several health problems for consumers," said Anti Adulteration Consumer Society chairman Shahid Shareef.
When contacted, officials of Big Bazaar acknowledged that the raid had taken place and said that certain queries were raised about their operations. "Certain things have been brought to our notice in terms of the way things were operating in the bakery. We are working on those issues and care will be taken that we abide by all the rules and regulations," said the official.
