Food Safety officials continue

UNDER CLOSE WATCH:Officials of the Department of Food Safety inspecting sweets at a shop on Bharathy Street in Puducherry on Thursday.

Ahead of Deepavali, officials from the Department of Food Safety on Thursday continued with their inspection of sweet and confectionery shops to ensure that there was no adulteration in the food items.

A number of samples were taken for testing of shelf life and use of colouring agents by the team led by I. Danaraju and Ravichandran, Food Safety Officers, and Balakrishnan, designated officer of the Department of Food Safety.

Owners were instructed to maintain hygiene and quality as per the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. Officials inspected raw material that were used in making sweets as well as the final products.The inspection was aimed at detecting the quality of sweets and whether non-permitted colours were used since there was a spurt in sales during the festive season.

Mr. Danaraju said that some outlets made use of used palm oil with refined oil and used non-permitted colours which were not allowed under the Food Safety and Standards Act.

The samples would be tested at the Food and Drugs Testing Laboratory here. If any adulteration was found, stringent action would be taken under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, he added.