E. coli in packaged water raises fresh food safety fears in Kashmir Valley

Concerns are mounting across the Kashmir Valley over food safety after authorities banned the sale of certain food items found unsafe during laboratory testing.

According to an order issued by the Assistant Commissioner, Food Safety, Srinagar, a Food Safety Officer lifted a sample of one-litre packaged drinking water of the brand Ajwa. The sample was sent to the National Food Testing Laboratory, Ghaziabad, where it was declared unsafe due to the presence of E. coli and coliform bacteria.

“In exercise of the powers conferred, it is hereby ordered that the sale, storage, distribution or display of Ajwa packaged drinking water is strictly prohibited within the jurisdiction of District Srinagar with immediate effect and until further orders,” the order stated.

The order further directed all food business operators, wholesalers and retailers to immediately stop the sale and distribution of the product and submit the stock position of the affected batch to the department within 48 hours. The ban on Ajwa packaged water in Srinagar comes days after authorities in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district ordered a recall of a particular batch of Priyagold Butter Delite biscuits after laboratory tests found sulphite levels exceeding the permissible limit.

Sheikh Zameer, a food safety official in Anantnag, said the recall was ordered following confirmation that sulphite content in the biscuit sample was higher than the maximum allowed limit. “We are in the process of recalling these biscuits from the district. Stockists have been directed to withdraw the affected batch from the market,” he said.

Zameer added that earlier, wheat flour of a particular brand had also been prohibited in the district after insects were found in the packaging.

Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Jammu and Kashmir, Smita Sethi said the detections were a result of intensified and planned inspection drives across the Union Territory.

“Once a product is found unsafe in one area, the directions are not confined to that district alone. Other districts are also instructed to look for the same product,” she said.

In September, police registered six cases against individuals and establishments for selling rotten meat in violation of public health and safety norms. The action followed the seizure of nearly 13,000 kilograms of meat and meat products during enforcement drives across Jammu and Kashmir.

Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has urged the authorities to make public the status of the investigation into the “rotten meat” scandal, in which the FDA seized tonnes of unlabelled, rotten and potentially unlawful meat being openly sold across the Valley.