The Delhi government’s Food Safety department will conduct pre-festival food safety checks to assess the quality of commonly adulterated items such as khoya, milk, ghee, sweets, and dairy products, among others , officials aware of the development said on Sunday.
The department has directed its 11 district units to undertake random checks ahead of Diwali in the interest of public health. Officials said that the exercise is carried out every year.
“The district units have been asked to maintain surveillance against possibility of food adulteration ahead of Diwali. It is usually done every year during the festival period when the chances of adulteration in a range of food items especially ghee, sweets, milk, and other milk products goes up due to high demands from consumers. The teams will carry out random checks and also collect samples when they suspect possibilities of adulteration,” said a senior official of the department of food safety.
The department of food safety regulates manufacture, storage, sale and distribution of food across the national capital under the provisions of the Food Safety Act and Rules/Regulations. The agency keeps surveillance by conducting surprise inspections and raids of the food establishments and draws samples of such food articles as can be potentially adulterated, substandard or mislabelled.
During Durga Puja too, food safety officers lifted around 500 samples of various food items, including buckwheat flour, oil, milk products from different parts of the city and sent them for testing. “The report of the tests of the food items is awaited,” said another official.
The above quoted official said that the district units have also been asked to keep a surveillance over food products which are used during Diwali and lift the samples of chocolates, confectionary and bakery items. “The chances of adulteration in confectionary and bakery products is also high, though the chances of adulteration in chocolates is comparatively less but anyway we have to be careful so that adulterated products are not produced and sold to the people which can pose health risks to them,” said the official.
The department will take legal action against food item manufacturers if the tests of the 500 samples collected in the drive during Durga Puja fail under the relevant food safety laws.
Manufacture of substandard food items may lead to a fine of up to ₹5 lakh, while for misbranded food items, the penalty may extend to ₹3 lakh.
According to the food safety department any person who manufactures for sale or stores or sells or distributes or imports any article of food for human consumption which is unsafe, shall be punishable with imprisonment and fine, and the imprisonment may be for life including fine if the food items cause injury or death to the consumer.
Public health expert Dr Jugal Kishore, director professor and former head of community medicine at Safdarjung Hospital, said the prevalence of adulteration of food is as high as 15-50% of that available in the market, and this increases further during the festive season.
“Certain food such as sweets uses many unacceptable adulterants like milk and milk products having detergents, oils, urea, mineral oils, animal fats, etc. Adulterants not only decrease food quality but also decrease shelf-life and taste. Certain preservatives are added to counter these changes but those increase many health risks. These adulterated foods give rise to gastritis, peptic ulcers, nausea, vomiting, food poisoning, diarrhoea and dehydration, allergies, asthma and in long run can give rise to cancers, kidney failure, liver failure, nutritional deficiencies, etc. Food adulteration is a crime against humanity. Food is an essential commodity for life and food adulteration is decreasing the chances of living and enjoying life. Although we had the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act 1954 and later Food Safety and Standard Act 2006 which mandate regular monitoring of the quality of food and severe punishment to the culprit if found adulteration. But due to lack of proper monitoring and surveillance food adulteration continues to be practised,” said Kishore.
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