Food safety officials conduct drive against misbranding

I. Dhanaraju, Food Safety Officer, inspects the items being sold in a shop inside the Goubert Market in Puducherry on Friday.

Officials from the Department of Food Safety conducted raids at the Goubert Market here on Friday and seized packaged food items and other products with faulty labelling and misbranding.

The team led by I. Dhanaraju, Food Safety Officer, conducted raids at around 15 shops in the Goubert Market and seized 30 samples that did not have proper labelling including manufacturing date and best before use.

Mr. Dhanaraju said that the vendors had procured the stocks from different suppliers for sale to consumers. The officials warned the shopkeepers that they should purchase and display only those food articles that are properly labelled in terms of manufacturing date, best before use, net weight and the Maximum Retail Price. He also advised consumers to remain vigilant while purchasing packaged products and to refrain from purchasing food articles that do not bear proper and complete product labelling.

The Department of Food Safety will continue with raids to ensure that consignments with faulty labelling did not enter the market, he said.