400kg ‘spurious’ paneer goes missing, Patiala food safety officer booked

Besides paneer, many other food samples, collected from the milk chilling centre, were also found to be ‘substandard’ and ‘unsafe’ for human consumption

The Patiala police on Saturday booked a food safety officer (FSO) on the complaint of the health department over the disappearance of 400kg of ‘spurious’ paneer that was seized during a raid.

As per the FIR, around 500kg of paneer, along with samples of skimmed milk powder and vanaspati ghee was seized and sealed by health officials on November 6 at RK Chilling Centre in Patiala.

The FSO, identified as Sandeep Singh, has been booked for conniving with the owner of a milk chilling centre from where the paneer was seized during a raid on November 6.

The FSO has been booked under section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servants) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The owner of the RK Milk Chilling Centre, Rajinder Kumar, and the FSO have also been booked under section 272 of the IPC and section 16 (1AA), 16 (1B) of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act 1954.

Besides paneer, many other food samples, collected from the milk chilling centre, were also found to be ‘substandard’ and ‘unsafe’ for human consumption.

As per the FIR, around 500kg of paneer, along with samples of skimmed milk powder and vanaspati ghee was seized and sealed by health officials on November 6 at RK Chilling Centre in Patiala.

The officials said the lab reports that came on November 10 found the paneer to be substandard, and other food items to be having misleading branding and unsafe.

As per the FIR, the owner of the milk chilling centre, as per the protocol, was given the option to get the samples checked from another government lab, but he refused to get the samples tested again.

When the health department decided to destroy the seized food items, surprisingly, only 100 kg, out of the total 500kg of sealed paneer, were found by the district health officer (DHO).

The DHO immediately wrote to the Patiala SSP to take necessary action against the food safety officer and owner of the milk chilling centre.

DHO Dr Vijay Singh said, “The seized 500kg paneer was sealed in the presence of senior officials, and FSO was also present. Later, only 100kg was found. We will be writing for departmental action also against the FSO.”

Meanwhile, Patiala police said that they had registered the case and started the investigation.