To put a check on supply of adulterated sweets and milk items during festive season, department of Food Safety will start a special checking drive from Monday.
Their official will inspect manufacturing units of sweets and shops to check the purity of items prepared by them, said Dehradun Food Safety officer Anoj Kumar Thapliyal said on Thursday. Shortage of manpower and lack of vehicle facility are adversely affecting the execution of the Food security and Standard Act. Despite all this, we are making all effort to implement this Act in the district,” he added.
Anoj further said, “From January to September this year, they had collected 272 samples of food items from restaurants, dairy, shops and other manufacturing units in the district, out of which around 50 samples were unsafe or sub-standard or misbranded or containing extraneous matter are pending in the court.
In the last year of festive session, department had conducted sampling drive and collected 70 samples of food items from different shops, out of which 20 samples were found unsafe or substandard and matters are pending before the court. He further said the penalty is being imposed on food business operators who are manufacturing any article of food containing ingredients or substances and safety has not been established under Act.
He further said many shops were issued registration certificates and licenses after conducting verification there. Department has issued 11, 00 licenses to the business operators whose annual turn over were more than Rs 12 lakh while around 5500 shopkeepers whose annual turn over were less than Rs 12 lakh got registered in the department. Thapliyal said he has chalked out a plan for festive season. They will start drive from October 14. This will cover manufacturing units of sweets shops. They will monitor preparation techniques and also keep a close watch over hygiene and precautions maintained by the manufacturers.
They will be directed to take samples of milk and its by products which remains in high demand during festive season. After conducting sampling, food items will be sent to food and drug testing laboratory, Rudrapur for checking its purity. Regular sampling is being done in various shops and other manufacturing units in the district. During festive season, the officers will be deployed at different places including Vikasnagar Sahaspur, Chakrata, Doiwala, Dehradun city and Rishikesh.
They have been directed to take action against shop owners, who found manufacturing food items which is unsafe or sub-standard or misbranded or containing extraneous matter or without displaying ingredients.