Health team collects food samples

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 14

Under the Tandarust Punjab mission, a team of the Food Administration, Kapurthala, inspected shops of food business operators in the town and seized samples of milk, curd, mustard oil, pulses, bakery products and rice. The inspections were carried out due to complaints made by residents.

The inspection team was headed by Dr Harjot Pal Singh, Assistant Commissioner, Food, and Satnam Singh, Food Safety Officer. The team also held a meeting with the owners of karyana shops and apprised them of recent instructions by the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. Shopkeepers were asked not to sale or store Lite (vanaspati) ghee and cooking mediums as its sale had been banned in view of reports that ghees and cooking mediums were being sold in the guise of desi ghee.

Cooking medium and lite ghee are products of vegetable fat and are cheap. On the contrary, desi ghee is an altogether different product, derived exclusively and purely from milk fat and is priced at over Rs 400 per kg.

Members of the inspection team said blending of refined oils was allowed only under label declaration and after obtaining of Agmark number. Food businessmen were also directed not to sell powdered spices and condiments except under packed conditions as there was an apprehension of adulteration in the powdered items.

The samples seized by the team have been sent to the State Food Laboratory, Kharar.