15 of 62 food samples fail to meet standards

Nikhila Pant Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, March 22 

Many food samples collected in January and February failed the test under the Food Safety and Standards Act. Of the 62 samples of food items taken, 15 samples could not meet the standards.

The fact that a large number of food items being sold in the markets in packaged and loose form have high adulteration, has set the alarm bells ringing as it points to the existence of a vicious circle of adulterated food items being circulated in the market. 

The samples which failed to meet the parameters of purity under the Act included milk, cheese, spices, ghee, salt, noodles, oil, refined oil, ground gramflour, black gram and refined flour. 

Assistant Commissioner, Food, Amritpal Singh, said “The department has taken a serious note of the report and action will be initiated against the manufacturers and sellers of the food items that failed the test.” At least 80 per cent of the samples of sweets which were collected from the district were found to be below standard. Most of the samples of sweets were found to have low quality colours added to them. 

While using genuine colours in making sweets is not prohibited, use of synthetic colour has been prohibited by the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). 

Last year too, samples of sweets collected during the festive season were found to be high on adulteration. Owing to the election season, officials of the Health Department also missed meeting their target of collecting at least 100 samples of food items every month. 

In December, the teams collected only nine samples. The number rose to 30 in January and 32 in February.  Taking a serious note, the department has instructed all chief medical officers and food inspectors to get their act together and start collecting samples of food items to meet the targets.