Pre-festival raids on sweets shops

Jaswant Shetra

Jagraon, October 13

A team of the District Health Department, led by District Health Officer (DHO) Andesh Kang, raided various sweet shops and eateries at Jagraon and Mullanpur.

The raids were conducted to check the quality of the eatables, particularly sweets, ahead of the festival season.

As the news of the Health Department team visiting the town spread, majority of the shopkeepers shut their shops till the team was in the town.

However, team members collected samples of some sweets from Mullanpur and Jagraon. Besides, the samples of desi ghee were also collected from a shop at the Nehru Market area of Jagraon. The team members found that the workers at some sweet shops were preparing sweets without wearing gloves. The team members instructed the owners of such sweetshops to maintain quality and hygiene of the sweets being prepared at their shops and provide gloves to the workers preparing the sweets to avoid contamination of the eatables. During the visit, the department officials examined quality and hygiene of various sweets being prepared by the sweet shops.

Andesh Kang told the media that such surprise visits by the Health Department will continue in the coming days to keep a check on the use of adulterated khoya in the district. “Some people start using adulterated khoya, jeopardising the health of people to earn a little extra bucks during the festival season. A strict action will be taken against the shopkeepers who are found selling or using adulterated khoya,” said Kang.