College hostel canteens fail food quality tes

Sushil Goyal

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, January 22

Of nine food samples collected from hostel messes and canteens of various educational institutions, seven have failed to meet the food safety standards during a laboratory test by the Food Analyst, Punjab.

The district health authorities collected food samples from three technical education institutions of Sangrur district from September 16 to December 15.

All three samples of yoghurt taken from two messes and a canteen of three technical education institutions were found to be substandard. A sample of noodles was found unsafe for consumption during the test. However, on the request of the mess owner, the failed sample of noodles has been sent to the Referral Food Laboratory at Ghaziabad for a retest.

The district health authorities collected two samples (one of yoghurt and the other of ‘channa dal’) from a hostel mess of Asra Group of Institutions, situated on Sangrur-Patiala road near Channo, in September last year. While the yoghurt was found to be substandard, the ‘channa dal’ passed the food safety test.

In November, the district health authorities collected three samples of yoghurt, Limca and noodles from a canteen of Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Longowal. During a laboratory test, the yoghurt was found to be substandard while noodles were tested unsafe for consumption. The Limca (soft drink) sample indicated that the soft drink had expired.

In December, four samples of yoghurt, wheat flour, salt and milk were collected from a hostel mess of Hira Singh Bhattal Engineering College, Lehragaga. The yoghurt was found to be substandard, while salt was declared misbranded. The wheat flour sample passed the test.