Hoshiarpur food safety teams collect

Hoshiarpur/ Oct 19/Daljeet Ajnoha— Acting in the interest of public health, food safety teams in Hoshiarpur carried out strict inspections and collected six food samples, while destroying about 20 kg of foul-smelling sweets on the spot.
Acting on the directions of Punjab Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Kanwalpreet Kaur Brar, Deputy Commissioner Ashika Jain and Civil Surgeon Dr Mandeep Kamal, and under the leadership of District Health Officer Dr Jatinder Bhatia, the teams have been conducting continuous checks to ensure compliance with food safety norms in the district.
As part of the drive, food safety teams conducted special inspections early on Monday along the Mukerian-Gurdaspur road, the Mukerian-Dasuya road and other areas of Hoshiarpur. Six samples were collected during the checking, including two of milk, one of curd and three of sweets.
Acting on the directions of District Health Officer Dr Jatinder Bhatia, Food Safety Officer Munish Sodhi and his team collected samples from vehicles and sweet vendors passing through these routes.
During the inspection, vendors carrying sweets were stopped near Harsa Kalota village in Mukerian. About 20 kg of sweets emitting a foul smell was found and destroyed on the spot. The food safety team directed the concerned food business operators to strictly follow hygiene and food safety rules during the preparation, packaging, storage and sale of food items.
Dr Jatinder Bhatia said there would be no compromise on consumers’ health. He urged food business operators to prepare and sell only clean, quality and safe food products, and cautioned them against packing food items in newspapers or any other material that could affect their quality and safety.
He made it clear that violators of food safety norms would not be spared. If the shortcomings found during inspections were not rectified, strict legal action would be taken under the Food Safety and Standards Act and the relevant rules. He added that the checking drive would continue across the district to ensure food safety.