PRINCE KUMAR
Ranchi Nov 1: A majority of sweet sellers across Ranchi have not displayed the ‘Best before date’ on the product. The challenge of safe food has taken an upsurge especially during the festive season of Diwali with no Food Safety Officer in the capital for two months.
When contacted a number of customers they said that putting an expiry date is merely an eyewash as many times the sweet was found to be spoilt.
“I purchased sweet one day before the puja and it was completely spoilt on the day of puja and when I came back to return the sweet they denied to provide fresh sweets,” a consumer said.
During a rough survey across the district, it was found that few of the sweet seller shops have displayed the best before date but in the absence of Food Safety Officer, it has become hard to believe as there is no one to check the effectiveness of the date mentioned.
Talking to SDM Deepak Dubey on the issue of food safety he said that there will be a drive before Diwali to check the food standards in the capital.
“It is mandatory for every sweet seller to display the best before date and if not strict actions will be taken against those,” the SDM said.
“We will be running a drive with the mobile food testing vans and food analyst,” the SDM further said.
“On October 13 and 14, we checked 23 sweet sellers and around Rs 2,75,000 challan amount was collected from them with a fine ranging from Rs 5000 to Rs 25000,” the SDM said.
In a September 25 2020 order, the FSSAI has made it mandatory from October 1 2020 to write ‘Best before date’ on sweet plates in shops for the open sale of sweets.
