Recently, parents of a play school going girl in Trivandrum, found to their horror that the Hide and Seek biscuits they purchased from a local super market had live worms in it. This was first detected by the play school staff when they opened the biscuit cover during snacks break. Hide and Seek is a brand owned by leading biscuit and confectionery company, Parle Products Ltd with an annual turnover of Rs 10,000 cr.
On Saturday in Ernakulam, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and local corporation officials were shocked to find fungus infested biscuits, chocolates and energy drinks of leading food brands beyond use by date repacked in a godown of a distribution agency near Maradu. Apart from old food products, soap and soap powders were also repacked in this manner.
New dates were stamped and distributed to supermarkets and hypermarkets for sale possibly on special discounts. The Food Safety Officers sealed the premises and is likely to cancel the license for functioning of the agency. The agency is a state-wide distributor of leading consumer brands in Kerala and the old food products were brought from Tamilnadu, according to investigating officials.
Among the major brands whose products were repacked by the distribution agency include of Nestle India, Elite Food Products, some brands of palmolein oil and Japanese brand Hello Panda biscuits. At the time of the raid, six packing staff and three office staff were only present in the premises while the promoter of the enterprise, Shiva, a native of Tamilnadu was not present.
Consumer organisations pointed out that sale of out of expiry products poses a great health risk to people and stringent action must be taken by the companies and food safety officials to ensure the culprits are brought to book. The officials said that it was not yet clear whether the repacking was done with the knowledge and approval of the leading brands.
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