Firozabad, Providing pure, safe and quality milk and milk products to the general public is one of the top priorities of the Food Safety and Drug Administration Department. Keeping in view the complaints of adulteration in milk and milk products and the adverse impact it has on public health, important instructions have been issued by the Commissioner, Food Safety and Drug Administration, Uttar Pradesh for effective prevention of adulteration in milk and milk products in the state.
The main objective of the order issued by Food and Safety Commissioner Chandan Pandey is to effectively curb the use of foreign fat, harmful chemicals and other adulterants in milk and milk products and to ensure strict legal action against such food traders. Through which adulterated or unsafe milk products are manufactured, processed or sold which affect public health.
According to the order issued, if presence of foreign fat and harmful chemicals and adulterants is found in any dairy and dairy product manufacturing processing unit. Then action will be taken to confiscate all the milk products available in the concerned premises and destroy them as per rules. Along with this, action will be taken against such establishments with immediate effect under the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. In view of the seriousness of public health in the order, instructions have also been given to issue a sudden ban order and stop the related construction work with immediate effect. If it is confirmed that any establishment is using chemicals harmful to public health in an organized manner, then action will be taken against the concerned persons by registering an FIR under the prevailing legal provisions. Similarly, if serious adulteration is confirmed in a particular brand of milk or milk product. Then action will be taken to impose a statewide ban on the sale of the concerned brand. Instructions have also been given to suspend the food license-registration of such establishments with immediate effect under the relevant provisions of the Food Safety and Standards (License and Registration of Food Business) Regulations, 2011. It has also been made clear in the order that if milk and milk products manufactured outside the state are found to contain harmful chemicals or foreign fat, then action will be taken to ban the sale of the concerned brand in the state.
In compliance with the order issued by District Magistrate Santosh Kumar Sharma, a special enforcement campaign has been started by the team of Food Safety and Drug Administration Department with the aim of ensuring the quality of milk and milk products in the district and effectively curbing adulteration.
In this sequence, a thorough inspection of various dairy and food establishments in Shikohabad Municipality area was conducted on Tuesday. During the inspection, the status of quality, maintenance, cleanliness and compliance with food safety standards of the food items available in the establishments was reviewed and samples of suspicious milk products were collected as per rules. In which, while inspecting the Krishna Dairy, Shikohabad establishment, a sample of the cheese available there was collected for testing.
The same Radhika Dairy, Shikohabad establishment was inspected and a sample of cheese was collected as per rules. While inspecting Mohan Dairy, Shikohabad Dairy, a sample of the available cheese was taken for testing. And a sample of cheese was collected from Pandey Dairy, Shikohabad establishment.
After inspecting the Gopal Dairy, Shikohabad establishment, a sample of the available ghee was collected for testing. For the purpose of checking the quality of food items being used in Hotel Taj Anushi, Shikohabad, one sample each of Paneer and Cashew, i.e. a total of two samples, was collected and correction notice issued against the deficiencies found.
In this operation, a total of 08 food samples were collected from different establishments, which included 06 samples of cheese, 01 sample of ghee and 01 sample of cashew.
All the collected samples are being sealed as per rules and sent to the food laboratory for testing as per legal procedure. On the basis of the analysis report received from the laboratory, if any violation of prescribed food safety and quality standards, adulteration or any other irregularity is found in any sample. Then, advance legal action will be taken against the concerned food businessman as per the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and the rules and regulations made thereunder. The department will continue the campaign against adulteration.
And it has been clarified by the Food Safety and Drug Administration Department that any kind of adulteration in milk and milk products will be considered a serious threat to public health. The department is keeping special vigil on such establishments where manufacturing or selling activities of milk, cheese, ghee, khoya and other milk products are carried out. As per the instructions of the Commissioner, this special campaign will continue in the district in future also. Departmental teams will conduct surprise inspections of dairies, milk selling centers, milk product manufacturing/processing units, hotels, restaurants and other food establishments and samples of food items will be collected as per requirement.
The Food Safety and Drug Administration Department has appealed to all the food businessmen of the district that with the aim of providing pure and safe milk and milk products to the people of the district, the Food Safety and Drug Administration will continue to take effective action against adulteration. Food Safety Officer Arun Kumar, Vinod Verma, Manoj Kumar, Sanitary Supervisor Rajkumar etc. were involved during the proceedings.