Food and Drugs Administration, municipal body keep watch on mawa, sweets

DNA Correspondent
With just a day left for the Ganpati festivities to kick off, officials of the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) are having a field day.

AV Giri, FDA joint commissioner (Mumbai), said food inspectors have been instructed to keep a watch on the use of mawa in sweets, especially modaks.

“The demand for mawa modaks skyrockets during the festival. We keep a watch on small sweet shops as they tend to compromise on quality. Our inspectors have been given specific instructions to randomly pick up mawa samples and check them for quality in laboratories,” said Giri.

The civic body has also initiated a crackdown on sweets made of mawa and seized more than 59kg of adulterated mawa and 321kg of sub-standard sweets.

“We are keeping an eye on the mawa and sweets coming in the city through octroi and also through railways stations such as Mumbai Central and Borivli,” said municipal commissioner Subodh Kumar.

Concerned about the health of Mumbaikars, Kumar said mandals will not offer cut fruits as prasad to devotees this year.

“The fruits are cut and kept for days together thus inviting bacteria. People consume them in good faith and suffer. If the mandals want to give fruits as prasad then they should give the complete fruit and not in pieces,” he added.