The Gautam Buddh Nagar food safety department on Thursday seized 120 kg of ”bad quality” cashew from the production facility of a sweets shop here during a raid in the run-up to Holi, officials said.
The department also seized samples of sweets like milk cake, gujiya, and cashew samples from various shops for quality testing, the officials said.
Keeping in view the Holi festival and as per the instructions of District Magistrate Manish Kumar Verma, officials of the Food Safety Department conducted a special campaign to test the quality of food items, Assistant Commissioner Food (II) Archana Dheeran said.
Under the leadership of Chief Food Safety Officer Akshay Goyal, food safety officers collected samples of nine food items from various establishments of the district for testing, she said.
”After raiding the factory of Brijwasi Sweets located at Parthala Khanjarpur, Sector-122, a total of six samples – milk cake, gujiya, gulab jamun, khoya, soan papdi and cashew samples were taken for testing. Due to poor quality of cashews and no ‘use by’ date being marked, 120 kg cashews have been seized,” Dheeran said.
This quantity of cashew costs Rs 1,00,800,” the officer said.
”Similarly, a total of three samples of gujiya, namak para and bedmi puri flour were taken from BlinkIt store located at Parthala Khanjarpur for testing and shops located at Sector-22 Chowda Raghunathpur were inspected and awareness about food quality spread among consumers ahead of the festival,” the officer said.
The assistant commissioner also said that in future too, continuous testing campaigns will be conducted in the district with the aim of providing pure food and beverages without adulteration to the people.
During the special campaign, the department officials also spread awareness among consumers about the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and encouraged them to turn up in large numbers for voting, according to an official.
