SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Oct 12: The Food Safety Wing of Deoghar district on Tuesday launched a massive drive in Babadham urban area in wake of Durga Puja festival, and fined over dozen sweets shops, restaurants, and food factories for adulteration.
The team under District Food Safety Officer Dinesh Marandi imposed a fine of Rs. 10,000 on Santosh Misthan Bhandar, Rs 5,000 on Basuki Misthan Bhandar and Rs 3,000 each on Pipal Chhaya and Maa Tara Sweets owing to adulteration and unhygienic store condition.
Besides this, the food safety wing of the district administration also fined Rs 2,000 to a sweets shop at Azad Chowk for selling adulterated Paneer and seized the product. Yadav Hotel was also fined Rs 2,000 for adulteration. Chandravanshi Hotel was fined Rs 1,000 for using non-food colour and not maintaining hygienic conditions at their shop.
Marandi said that on the directive of SDM Dinesh Kumar Yadav, this special drive against adulteration has been launched and it would continue in wake of the festive season for the health safety of the people of Babadham.
Apart from imposing fines, the team also checked sweets shops, restaurants , mixture factories in the city and collected samples for testing of adulteration at the lab.
The team also raided and collected samples from Manoj Cake Factory, Pakwan Restaurant, Trishul Mixture factory on the basis of suspicion. Dinesh Marandi said that the team has recommended a designated food safety officer (SDM) for action against them.
“While hygiene conditions of some of the restaurants and outlets were found substandard and filled with dirt, labourers at a mixture factory were seen using foot for crushing ingredients while packing. So we have recommended SDM for taking stern action against them,” said Dinesh Marandi.
Officials said that township-based food manufacturing units and traders are under the radar of the food safety wing to ensure safe sweets and food items are made available to consumers.
“We have even released a telephone number of the department in the interest of people where they can lodge complaints about suspected adulterated items,” he added.
