Punjab food safety teams sieze spurious milk ahead of Rakshabandhan

LUDHIANA: Continuing with the anti-adulteration drive, Food Safety and Dairy Development Teams jointly conducted raids at midnight in various parts of the State ahead of Rakshabandhan.

In the raid at around 11.30 pm on August 21st at Deep Dairy in Village Khokh of Nabha Tehsil in Patiala, 8 quintals spurious milk, 12 quintal paneer and 130 kg cream were discovered. The foul-smelling milk was destroyed on the spot. The paneer and cream were seized. Samples of milk, paneer and cream were taken.

Similarly, a raid was conducted along with police at about 12.15 am in village Sangatpur Bhonki. 90 kg paneer, 1400 kg milk, 18 empty bags of 25 kg of Skimmed Milk Powder(SMP), 2 full bags of SMP were found. A sample of paneer, milk and SMP were taken. The entire sampling and seizure activity was accomplished around 4:15 a.m.

At Ropar, a joint night raid by food safety and dairy development team along with police started at about 10.30p.m. The raid at Kang Dairy in Boor Majra revealed spurious items to the tune of about 12 quintal paneer, 200-litre milk, cream 125 kg, curd 535 kg, butter 10 kg. Samples were collected and entire stock in a cold room of the dairy and the dairy premises were sealed. The hygiene conditions of the dairy were very poor and the dairy owners did not possess any licence for the sale of the articles to the public.

During early morning inspection of vehicles involved in the supply of milk and milk products, the Jalandhar Food Team intercepted an i20 car No. PB06 5669 delivering paneer at Happy Sweet Shop Adampur. The Car was carrying paneer in rear storage and on the back seat. During the inspection of the material, the car driver eloped from the spot in the car. Efforts were made to follow the car but in vain due to the high speed of the car. An enquiry is afoot about the owner of the car and appropriate action would be taken against the offender.

In Tarntaran a vehicle carrying about 300kgs of spurious Khoya Burfi, Milk Cake, Ladoo, Patisa was intercepted at Jandiala Road, Tarntaran and action were taken as per the Act.

A Chilling Centre at Jandu Singha was also inspected. The Milk was being collected without straining. The Food Business Operator( FBO) was directed to strain the milk and then put it in the tanker.

Under 'tandrust Punjab mission' in District Faridkot store of a khoya barfi supplier at Jaito was inspected. Wherein about 1.5 Quintal of spurious barfi and dhoda sweets were found. The FBO informed that the khoya burfi was brought from Fazilka and dhoda burfi from village Daria in Chandigarh. He was to sell the barfi at Rs. 150 per kg to small shops. Samples of khoya and dhoda burfi were taken and sent for analysis. The stock was seized.

Checking and sampling at Bikaneri Sweet Shop at Garhshankar revealed approximately 100 kg of suspected adulterated khoya. A sample of the same was taken and rest of the khoya was seized. The sample has been sent to lab for analysis.

In Ferozepur under the supervision of ADC (G) samples of khòya, paneer and milk were taken and about 40 kg of synthetic khòya was destroyed.