Food and Drugs Administration raids sweets unit, seizes goods worth over 3 lakh

NASHIK: The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) in Nashik raided a sweetmeat factory behind K K Wagh College in Adgaon on Thursday and confiscated products worth over Rs 3 lakh as those did not meet the standard food safety rules set by International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).

Around 3,500kg of finished product, 270kg of Mysore Pak and 540kg of low quality vanaspati ghee was confiscated. The raid was conducted at 10:30am on Thursday at Sangam Soan Papadi owned by Ramansingh Yadav. Senior FDA official said that the drive would be strict during the festive period.

A FDA official said, "The factory owner was not adhering to the rules set on food safety. The entire factory area was dirty, the articles used for preparing the sweets were spread over the floor and there was no room left for sunlight at the place of production.

He added, "The machines used for preparing the sweet were dirty and emanated a foul smell. Neither the factory workers did not go for regular medical check-up nor were they provided gloves or apron while preparing sweets."

The Vanaspati ghee that was used in sweet preparation was also of a cheap quality. The documentation necessary to run a factory were not present with the owner. The workers did not have any documents to support their employee proof.

Moreover, the containers used for storing the sweets were of bad quality and the date of manufacturing was not mentioned on those boxes as well. The samples of the products have been sent to the FDA laboratory in Pune and further action will be taken under the guidance of Additional Commissioner of the FDA Nashik, Uday Vanzari.

The official added, "Such drives will continue in the near future as well with a view that the festive period is underway. Sweets are sold in abundance during the Navratra in Dussehra and also in Diwali. The FDA's attempt will be to ensure that people get safe food for consumption. There are 10 food safety officers who have been deployed in different parts of the district to check factories of food products, restaurants, sweet marts."

Thefood safety officers of the FDA will also have to keep a watch on the food products sold en-route the Saptashringi Garh.