AMC officials destroy 30 kgs sweets, snacks

This Diwali, citizens can breathe a sigh of relief as health officials of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) are on their toes, even during the Diwali vacation, to check the quality of food available at various sweet and farsan shops. To ensure proper hygiene, officials will be on alert during the festive season. On Tuesday, health officials of Jodhpur ward conducted a raid on the sweet shops, wherein many shops were found breaching the AMC standards.

Under instruction from the deputy health officer of new west zone, Dr Milan Nayak, four health officials visited five sweet shops in the area and destroyed several food items which did not comply with the parameters set by the civic body. Speaking to DNA, Nayak said, "The officials carry out regular checks of food items in shops and vendors to ensure quality. In this festive season, people tend to buy more sweets and snacks. Thus, destroying food items which do not comply with our set standards becomes important."

Around 30 kgs of food items consisting of sweets and snacks like khakhra, puri and samosas among others were destroyed by the officials. The officers also found that several shops had sweets and snacks displayed out in the open with no covering. Nayak said, "The shops situated on the roadside should have their food covered with a cloth or steel net. But that was not the case in many of the shops, due to which we had to issue notices to them and collect fines."

Three shops were charged a fine of Rs 500 each and all the five shops visited were issued notices to maintain hygiene at their premises. In addition, the officials found that several packed food items did not have the labels stating manufacturing and expiry dates. "Due to the ongoing festival, it is compulsory for the shops and sweet vendors to mention the manufacturing as well as 'best before' dates. Since many shops did not have these labels on their products, the food items were destroyed," he said.

At one sweet shop, the officials destroyed locally-made khakhra packets which had no labels, while at another outlet, 12 kgs of dry samosa packets were destroyed. Similarly, 12 packets of bread and paav were destroyed having no manufacturing date.

While some of the sweet shop owners argued that bread and paav was not prepared at their shop but provided by a local company, the officers stated that the shop should avoid buying such products from local small companies which provide products without any dates. "It is important for the citizens as well to check the label with the dates before purchasing food item from sweet shops," stated Nayak. The four officials were public health supervisor GB Pandya, sanitary inspectors SK Bodat and IT Verghese and sanitary sub-inspector Vanrajsinh Chauhan.