Staff crunch mars campaign against food adulteration

Nitish Sharma

Tribune News Service

Ambala, March 17

Inadequate staff has created hurdles for the Department of Food and Drug Administration in ensuring food safety and standards in Haryana.

The department had taken a total of 173 samples in Ambala during 2018 of which 22 failed test. The failed samples included two of cow milk, two of desi ghee, one chana dal, one desi ghee, one peda sweet, three paneer, two meetha khoya, seven khoya, one moong dal, one khoya burfi and one mix milk, which were either substandard, misbranded as well as misleading, or unsafe and prohibited for sales.

This year till Thursday, the department has collected nearly 37 samples of different items of which one of mustard oil is misbranded while results of 15 samples are yet to arrive.

“No doubt the Food and Drug Administration Department has been taking samples to keep a check on adulteration, but in the absence of adequate staff, the food safety and standards can’t be ensured,” said an official on the condition of anonymity.

“A Food Safety Officer has the charge of Panchkula district too. The situation is similar across the state as there are only 11 FSOs in the state. Besides, the FSOs appear in courts and remain present during VIP visits,” the official added.

“Not enough samples are being taken to ensure standards. There must be at least two FSOs in each district along with assistant FSOs and food inspectors at the block level,” the official said.

“Samples are being taken regularly from sweet shops and other eateries. Regular meetings are held with dhaba and sweet shop owners asking them to maintain hygiene and food safety standards. As many as 981 samples have been taken since January 2014 till Thursday of which 116 have failed. While 113 cases have been decided in courts, three are pending. A fine of Rs 4.37 lakh has been realised during this period,” said Subhash Chander, Food Safety Officer (FSO).

“Senior Medical Officers, Medical Officers and Health Officers have been directed to take samples during festival seasons. From last year, vehicles have been provided to the FSOs which has helped us in collecting more samples. Sweets which are found unfit for consumption are destroyed and efforts are made to ensure quality and standards,” he added.

Six samples collected

• The Food Safety Officer took six samples of different food items on Friday. The samples of refined oil, bhujia, tonned milk, flavoured makhana, mix vegetable and gujia sweets were taken from different shops in Ambala Cantonment.

• “All the samples will be sent to the food laboratory in Karnal for analysis,” said Subhash Chander, Food Safety Officer (FSO). He also held a meeting with those preparing fast food and namkeen in Ambala and advised them to maintain the stock register for discarded oil. He asked them to avoid using oil repeatedly.