Meerut: With Diwali around the corner, the Food Safety and Drugs Administration (FSDA) has started working on ensuring that city residents do not fall prey to adulterated sweets and other food items consumed during the festive season. Officials said that from Monday, FSDA teams will conduct surprise inspections at shops in rural and urban areas to crack down on food adulteration. The drive will continue till October 21.
“A six-member food department team will be raiding sweet shops and sending suspicious food items to laboratory for testing. People selling substandard stuff will have to face action,” said Archana Dheeran, designated food officer.
Samples of suspicious food items will be sent to the food testing laboratory in Lucknow to rule out the possibility of any wrongdoing at the city-based lab. In case if a food item looks too suspicious, it will be sent to the city lab and an immediate report, which arrives within 48 hours, will be sought. The reports of samples sent to Lucknow take at least 20 days.
Officials said that some of the main items under scanner include milk, ghee, paneer and milk-based sweets. “Since our objective is to break the supply chain of adulterated food, efforts are being made to take samples from the factories which supply items to retail stores in the city,” said Sarvesh Mishra, chief food safety officer.
Customers can file complaints related to food adulteration with the department anonymously. If any resident is apprehensive about a certain food item that he has already purchased, he can send it for testing to the food department personally. The sample can be submitted by depositing Rs 1,000 and if found adulterated, a complaint can be filed with FSDA officials. One can even test the food items at home as directed in the manual available at the FSDA office.
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