Officials yet to step up drive against food adulteration

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, November 4

The festive season has set in, but the Health Department is yet to intensify its drive against food adulteration here.

It is learnt that after the suspension of District Health Officer (DHO) Dr Ramesh Maheshwari a few months ago, the post has been lying vacant.

Navdeep Singh, food inspector, said: “We can’t take samples of sweets and other edible items on our own as we don’t have the DHO here. We can only carry out checks and collected nine samples last week.”

Selling adulterated sweets and other items is a common practice during the festive season. A member of a city-based NGO said: “During festivals, adulteration is rampant. Despite the Food Safety and Standards Act-2006 in place, nothing seems to have changed on the ground. Sellers keep exploiting gullible people. Even the administration seems least bothered.”

Punjab tops the country when it comes to adulterated processed food. Of the 26,077 samples of processed food found to be adulterated in the country in 2018-19, Punjab had the highest — 3,403. As there are no laboratories near Bathinda, samples are sent to the forensic lab in Kharar and the results take a fortnight or more to come.

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