Although the State Government has made it mandatory to display the manufacturing and expiry dates for the sweets sold in the shops, yet in Baleswar district the guidelines are hardly followed.
Hundreds of shops selling sweets in their counters are flouting the rules with impunity. One can find hardly any shop which has displayed the dates either of manufacture or expiry. Since October the Government has made it mandatory to display the dates for each sweet prominently as per the guidelines of FSSAI. While some shops have displayed, most of the shops have found an easy and simple way to display “Manufactured today and expired tomorrow”. These tags are permanently fixed on each type of sweet.
The sweets which are made out of milk have two days expiry period after manufacture while other products have a life of 5 days , said reports. In the district the enforcement agencies are silent on these acts of violations and for name's sake carrying out checks in certain shops.
Inspector of food safety Annushree Khatua , however, said that the department had been spreading awareness among the shopkeepers and also carrying out raids. In the raids so far they besides seizing sweets also recovered a penalty of over Rs 12,000, she said. In the meanwhile, it is alleged that none of the shops are following the guidelines and a rampant violations were seen when people were observing Makara Utsav when sweets are mandatory components.