By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 7 Mar: As the festive season approaches, the supply of adulterated food items sees a significant increase. In response, the Food Safety Department has launched an intensive campaign against adulterators ahead of the Holi festival. On Friday, the department seized three quintals of cheese and 60 kg of mawa.
With only a few days left for Holi, the Food Safety Department is conducting raids across the state. Teams are closely monitoring adulterated food items and conducting continuous raids. In Dhulkot, Vikasnagar, the department seized three quintals of cheese and 60 kg of mawa, which were to be supplied in Premnagar, Dhulkot, Selaqui, and Sahaspur.
Additional Commissioner, Food Safety and Drug Administration Tajbar Singh Jaggi shared that, on the instructions of Food Commissioner and Secretary Dr R Rajesh Kumar, an intensive checking campaign is being run statewide. Special surveillance is in place in border areas to prevent the supply of adulterated and poor-quality food items from other states. Samples of seized food items have been sent to the lab for testing, and the remaining items were destroyed in the Shishambada dumping zone. Strict legal action will be taken against the culprits once the investigation reports are received.
Jaggi added that special teams are active in every district, checking sweets, milk, mawa, cheese, edible oil, spices, and other food items before Holi. Special caution is being exercised in Dehradun, Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar, and Nainital districts, where the supply of adulterated food items is highest. Suspicious food items found during raids have been sent for lab testing, and action will be taken against culprits under the Food Safety Standards Act (FSSA), 2006, once reports are received.
Sources claim that much of the adulterated mawa and cottage cheese makes its way in Dehradun district and in Haridwar from Saharanpur district which is a hub for production of milk products and even synthetic and adulterated milk products. While the Food Safety Department does increase its raids every year around the festive seasons of Holi and Diwali, the question arises as to why it is unable to enforce complete ban on influx of adulterated Mawa and cheese throughout the year. Dehradun receives large quantity of milk products from Saharanpur throughout the year and much of the consignment is able to reach local dairy vendors and sweets shops in Dehradun.
