Gurgaon: Diwali sweets under scanner as food safety men collect samples

The locations were sweet samples were taken are Pataudi, Basai and Shivaji Nagar.

The Gurgaon food safety department took samples of sweets from three locations in the city on Thursday to check for adulteration and contamination. Reports regarding these samples will be available in the next 15 days.

KK Sharma, Gurgaon’s food safety officer, checks samples at a sweet shop on Thursday. (Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

This move came as the food samples are often found to be adulterated and containing harmful chemicals during the festive season. “As there is an increase in demand, shopkeepers tends to use sub-standard ingredients to prepare sweets. They get spoilt if kept for long hours,” KK Sharma, food safety officer of Gurgaon, said.

The three locations in the city from where the samples were taken are Pataudi, Basai and Shivaji Nagar.

“One quintal of Rasgullas was destroyed at a sweet shop in Pataudi because we found mosquitoes in them,” Sharma said.

Earlier, during Durga Puja, the team also collected samples which were sent to a laboratory in Karnal for testing.

“We will be collecting samples of sweets from various areas in the city and strict action will be taken if any of the samples are found to be adulterated,” Sharma said.

If the samples collected by the team are found to be substandard then the person responsible will face a fine ranging between ₹3 lakh and ₹5 lakh, Sharma said.

Read I Over 48 sweet shops inspected in city for adulterated food

As per the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, a case can be registered against people responsible for selling adulterated sweets.

The team went about collecting food samples after receiving complaints of adulterated sweets from some areas of the city.

“We have received complaints regarding bad quality of sweets from a few areas,” Sharma said.

Last year, the food safety department had inspected and collected samples from 48 sweet shops.