FDA seizes food items worth ₹1.4 lakh in Pune rural; action against 12 sweet shop owners

The FDA drive was undertaken in the five circles of the Pune zone, headed by assistant commissioners and respective food safety officers

PUNE The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Pune division, has seized food items worth ₹1,04,450 from the Pune circle in the last eight days of the festive season. The action is taken under a special drive undertaken in Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad and rural areas.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Pune division, has seized food items worth ₹1,04,450 from the Pune circle in the last eight days of the festive season. (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)

The commodities which are seized are from Circle 5 (rural Pune).

Also, 12 sweet shops have come under the scanner for not following the norm of ‘displaying best before date’ on the packaged items.

While from the Pune division which includes - Pune, Satara, Sangli, Solapur, Kolhapur, FDA officials have seized food items worth ₹1,538,477. (see graphic)

“The seized commodities are from sweet-marts and grocery shops. Till the samples are not cleared from the lab we cannot allow the sale of the items which are under surveillance,” said Shivaji Desai, joint commissioner, (food), FDA Pune.

The drive was undertaken in the five circles of the Pune zone, headed by assistant commissioners and respective food safety officers.

Pimpri-Chinchwad area comes under Circle 4, while under Circle 3 – Camp, Hadapsar, Lonavla, Talegaon and nearby areas. Peth areas, Market yard, Kondhwa, Mundhwa, Katraj comes under Circle 2 and Baner, Shivaji nagar, Aundh, Khadki, Khardi comes under Circle 1.

“More samples have been taken from sweet-marts, their testing is still underway in the labs. Issuing compounding penalties also becomes important as it makes more impact as violators have to pay a fine at the same time when they are caught. Otherwise, court cases go long and violators keep finding ways to not pay fines,” added Desai.

In the Pune zone, from Circle 1, ₹5,000 was collected as a compounding penalty from one shopkeeper while from Circle 3, ₹21,000 were collected from four shopkeepers.

The food samples are tested at the State Public Health Laboratory, Camp.

“As per norms sample reports should come from labs in 15 days, but with only one lab available the process is delayed and sometimes results even come after 30 days,” added Desai.

Meanwhile, ₹43,000 fine was also collected from Sangli with 23 sweet-mart owners failing to follow the ‘best before date’ norm.