May 9, 2018

Food safety law found wanting

Surat: The provisions in the food safety law are not enough in themselves to contain the sources of water-borne diseases in the Diamond City. Penalties are very few after samples are taken for testing by health officials of the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) and adulteration is found.
During the last two months, SMC’s health department officials had collected 20 samples of milk, 14 of mango milk shake, 18 from ice factories and yet no one has been punished as yet. The reason is results of the analysis of the samples are still awaited.
The city has nearly 50,000 roadside eateries, but only 20 health officers, 200 ward inspectors and 10 food inspectors to conduct regular checking.
A health officer said, “Most of the roadside eateries in the city start operations in the evening hours. More than 70 per cent of them don’t have any licence. It is not possible for us to check them during night hours. We usually look for unhygienic conditions at food stalls, check personal hygiene of people who prepare food and whether raw material used is stale or not. Usually, we do not collect food samples from roadside eateries. We collect samples from hotels and restaurants on receiving a complaint.”

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