Inspections on to curb sale of adulterated food items

With an aim to curb the sale of spurious or adulterated food materials in Jalandhar, the Health Department has carried out over 50 inspections last month. These include inspections on sweets shops, food stocking godowns, factories and sampling of retail items. A department official said as per instructions from the state authorities, various drives were being carried out to curb the sale of spurious food items.

However, during raids since the Navratris, no large-scale seizures have been made by the department.

Since the past weeks, inspections have been carried out at a factory at Bhogpur and two others at Dana Mandi and Mithu Basti. At the Dana Mandi and Mithu Basti inspection on October 2, a ‘petha’ factory had been inspected where samples of the sweet had also been taken.

A food security official said, “Drives are being conducted from time to time and many samplings are also being held. A drive was also initiated to promote the use of cooking oil and stress on the fact that not more than 25 compounds must be present in the oil.”

Officials said sampling of mustard oil, silver leaf, cooking oil, milk and milk products had been held and will be continued in the coming days.