Raids begin on sweet shops in Dharmapuri

Food safety officials have served show cause notice on sweet and savoury outlets in a series of inspections in the run up to Deepavali here.

Adulterants

Outlets found preparing sweets and savouries with artificial colouring agents, adulterants, and recycled oil have been pulled up.

According to an administration release, outlets that were found selling sweets and savouries in packets without manufacturing and expiry dates are being served show cause notice, along with outlets found using adulterants and artificial colouring agents.

The inspections are slated to continue, the press release added.

Khoya, Peda Barfi samples sealed

Chandigarh: Under the supervision of Dr Rajinder K Sharma, Designated Officer I/c Food Safety Administration, Chandigarh Health Department, Chandigarh, a joint team of Food Safety Officers Surinder Pal Singh and Bharat Kanojia raided sweets shops here on Friday at Industrial Area of Chandigarh for inspecting sweets manufacturing units in the said area. All the four manufacturing units in Industrial Area, Phase-II, Chandigarh were inspected. Alongwith this the sweet shop in the Area of Sector 45, Burail and Sector 44, Chandigarh were also inspected. Three samples including Khoya Burfi, Peda Sweets and Khoya were taken and sent to Food Analysis Laboratories, Chandigarh for analysis and examination.

The food vendors were also instructed to keep hygiene and quality standards according to Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. It was brought to the notice of all shop owners that manufacturing, selling, storing of food articles in unhygienic condition, substandard food, adding any adulterant in food, stale food, unsafe food, which is injurious to health of the general public will be fined a sum of Rs 10 lakh and imprisonment up to seven

Crackdown on sweet shops

With shopping for sweets and savouries going on in full swing with Deepavali less than three days away, the Food Safety Department has been coming down on shops and eateries selling sweets.

Officials from the department have conducted surprise checks over the last few weeks and given notices to 14 shops and warned against unhygienic conditions in the kitchens as well as general cleanliness and the quality of ingredients used. “The shops were given a 15-day period to make the changes we specified to prepare the sweets in a more hygienic environment. We carried out checks and found that 12 shops made the necessary changes,” said District Food Safety Officer J. Suguna. She further cautioned the public against buying sweets and cakes which were covered with newspapers.

FSDA drive enters day 2; officials raid sweet shops under cantt area

Meerut: Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA) department's drive to check adulteration during the festive season entered its second day on Saturday with officials inspecting a number of shops in the cantonment area. The drive on Saturday saw a team of FSDA, Cantt board officials collecting sweet samples from various shops. 

Samples of Revdi, Laddu and Gajjak were collected, starting from one of the famous Revdi-Gajjak shop of Ramchandra Sahai at Abulane. 

"We collected samples of Gajjak rolls, Revdi, cashew Gajjak from Ramchandra Sahai's shop as well as Deewan Chand Revdi shop at Abulane. Besides, we also collected samples of biscuits and rusks from Alfa bakery and samples of coloured Chhena from Ramnath and Bundi Laddu from Bharat sweet shop at Sadar Bazaar," said JP Singh, chief food safety officer. 

He added that reports of the same are likely to be out in 15 days. Prodded on how the report, which would be out after the festive season is over, would help the present consumers, Singh said that he could only follow government instructions and nothing more. 

"There is a lab in Meerut but these samples are not sent there as the local traders can influence the reports. So we sent the samples at Lucknow," he added. 

Singh said that there were six such laboratories in the state, including Meerut lab, the nearest lab being stationed at Agra. However, since the Meerut commissionery falls under the jurisdiction of Lucknow lab, the samples are sent to the Lucknow lab. 

FSDA, under the guidelines set by district magistrate Pankaj Yadav, launched a drive on Friday to curb the sale of adulterated edible items. On the first day, the drive conducted surprise checks on restaurants and dairy shops.

FOUR QUINTAL ADULTERATED PETHA SEIZED

A team of Dehradun food safety department has seized four quintals of adulterated Petha sweet at Asharodi (Dehradun), which was brought to Dehradun from Chhutmalpur in Saharanpur on Saturday. The department officials ordered the suppliers to destroy the seized pethas.

Ahead of Diwali, a team consisting of four members has been deployed at various places in the district to inspect manufacturing units of sweets and the shops selling them to check the purity of the items, said Dehradun food safety officer Anoj Kumar Thapliyal on Saturday.

This is a routine business, given the fact that the quality of the sweets and other milk-produced items tend to go down considerably during the time of Diwali festivities when the demand peaks.

He said that the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 is enforced on all food business undertakings profit, non-profit, public and private carrying out any of the activities related to any stage of manufacture, processing, packaging, storing, importing, selling, transporting and distributing them.

He further said that with Diwali festival round the corner, some manufacturing units from Western Uttar Pradesh and other parts of the State supply adulterated sweets and milk items in the markets to earn profit despite knowing the fact that adulterated items are harmful to the people who consume them.

The team members have conducted special checking drives at Harbertpur, Vikasnagar, Rishikesh, Rispana bridge, Kolagarh and some other places of Dehradun city aside from Ajabpur Khurd, Rajpur, Sahaspur and places located along Chakrata Road for the past ten days.

Around 55 samples of adulterated items were collected from the manufacturing units by the team members so far this season in Dehradun. The department officials ordered the suppliers to destroy the seized adulterated items.

The officials are monitoring preparation techniques and also keeping a close watch over hygiene and precautions maintained by the manufacturers while preparing the sweets. The officials have been directed to take samples of milk and the by -products whose demand peaks during the festive season.

After collecting sampling, food items will be sent to Food and Drug Testing Laboratory (FDTL) based in Rudrapur to have their purity checked.

Thapliyal further said that in the past one year, the department had collected over 80 samples of food items, seized from the restaurants, milk dairies, shops and other manufacturing units in the district out of which some samples were found unsafe or sub-standard or misbranded or containing extraneous matters. Some cases relating to this have been pending in the court.

The penalty is imposed on food trade operators who are found manufacturing articles of food containing ingredients or substances harmful to health with no safety measures being taken in tune with the Act, he added.