‘Many shops in dist sell substandard edible salt’

Trichy: The district food safety department officials said that sale of substandard edible salt is prevalent to a certain extent in Trichy district. This was evident from the findings in the survey that more than 10% of households of government school students use edible salt with no iodine, they said.

Designated officer for Trichy food safety department Dr R Chitra claimed that despite the fact that the food safety department repeatedly emphasised the shops to sell iodised salt of good quality for edible purpose, many shops either sell non-iodised salt or substandard salt. "Based on the recent survey, we’ve found the areas in which the sale of substandard/ non-iodised salt is more prevalent. We’ll soon identify those shops which sell the salt and take necessary action," she said. A source from the food safety department said that sale of substandard or non-iodised salt for edible purpose was more prevalent in rural areas. Since some cheap edible salt varieties by unknown manufacturers were available, vendors buy them despite the fact that they are substandard. "Moreover some groceries shops do not keep edible salt in closed containers, but leave it open in sacks. If edible salt is substandard, since it’s kept open, the little amount of iodine that is present in it evaporates," he said.

An official from the union ministry of commerce and industry’s salt department said that though not very common, the supply of substandard salt is supplied to the shops to a limited extent, but across the state.

Meanwhile, state general secretary of Tamilnadu Vanigar Sangankalin Peramaippu (TVSP) V Govindarajulu said that traders should never be blamed if substandard salt was being sold by them and that only a very few manufacturers should be blamed.