Ranchi: During a special campaign conducted by the food safety department, eight city shops were slapped fines ranging from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 for selling adulterated food materials such as paneer, khowa and other such items. Altogether 22 street food vendors were also warned for using substandard ingredients.
Food safety officer Sudhir Ranjan Shetty said: “The cases of food adulteration have become rampant during the festive season. During this time, the demand of milk products and sweets increases, and to meet this demand, vendors use all-purpose flour and arrowroot powder with milk to maximise the products’ volume and thus their profit. We have visited a number of sweet shops in the city to inspect the basic ingredients used in making sweets. Five samples of paneer have failed the test during our inspection. We imposed fine on them and destroyed their stock of adulterated food items.”
In the past 10 months, the department have inspected around 800 large stores and street vendors. While 76 stores were fined, a total of 26 street vendors warned of licence revocation, if they continue to use poor-quality ingredients or adulterate food items.
“If the sweet shops or street vendors agree to disclose what material they are using by putting a label on the packets, mentioning in details the percentage of each ingredient, it may not be considered cheating but selling flour and arrowroot powder in paneer or khowa is unacceptable,” Shetty added. Sweet shop owners have, however, maintained that they don’t mix any adulterated ingredients in food, rather those items often remain mixed in the products they purchase.
Kartik Verma, owner of a popular sweet shop here, said: “In order to meet the demand of sweets during the festive season, we purchase milk and pre-made ingredients like khowa and panner from market. We have no idea if those items are mixed with adulterated food ingredients.”
Kishori Saw, owner of another renowned sweet shop, said: “When the demand increases, we have to buy certain raw materials from market.”
Food safety officer Sudhir Ranjan Shetty said: “The cases of food adulteration have become rampant during the festive season. During this time, the demand of milk products and sweets increases, and to meet this demand, vendors use all-purpose flour and arrowroot powder with milk to maximise the products’ volume and thus their profit. We have visited a number of sweet shops in the city to inspect the basic ingredients used in making sweets. Five samples of paneer have failed the test during our inspection. We imposed fine on them and destroyed their stock of adulterated food items.”
In the past 10 months, the department have inspected around 800 large stores and street vendors. While 76 stores were fined, a total of 26 street vendors warned of licence revocation, if they continue to use poor-quality ingredients or adulterate food items.
“If the sweet shops or street vendors agree to disclose what material they are using by putting a label on the packets, mentioning in details the percentage of each ingredient, it may not be considered cheating but selling flour and arrowroot powder in paneer or khowa is unacceptable,” Shetty added. Sweet shop owners have, however, maintained that they don’t mix any adulterated ingredients in food, rather those items often remain mixed in the products they purchase.
Kartik Verma, owner of a popular sweet shop here, said: “In order to meet the demand of sweets during the festive season, we purchase milk and pre-made ingredients like khowa and panner from market. We have no idea if those items are mixed with adulterated food ingredients.”
Kishori Saw, owner of another renowned sweet shop, said: “When the demand increases, we have to buy certain raw materials from market.”
