Hyderabad, Oct 25 (IANS) Telangana Standards Authority for Food and Essential Drugs (TG SAFE) found various violations during a special drive on sweet manufacturing and retail units across all districts of Telangana.
The Food Safety Officers of TG SAFE conducted a special drive and inspections at 53 sweet manufacturing and retail units.
The TG SAFE said in a statement on Sunday that during the inspection conducted on Friday (October 23), the officials noticed various violations in some establishments.
The officials found damaged flooring with littering of food waste; an unclean washing area; drains clogged with food waste; walls with dirt, dust and spillage of food waste. There was an absence of records, such as pest control records, health records of food handlers, etc., food handlers found without hairnets, gloves, etc., greasy exhausts and chimneys and improper storage practices, like food articles being stored on the floor, keeping of food and non-food articles together.
The officials collected 38 samples on suspicion of adulteration. An improvement notice will be issued to 20 establishments for rectification of the lapses identified during the inspection.
The establishments will be revisited to verify status of compliance with food safety norms and further action will be taken based on reinspection, and a show cause notice will be issued to one establishment for the violations reported during the inspections and further action will be initiated for imposing penalties, TG SAFE Commissioner said.
The special drive was conducted in districts such as Mancherial, Jangaon, Siddipet, Khammam, Narayanpet, Jogulamba Gadwal, Wanaparthy, Nalgonda, Suryapet, Peddapalli, Kamareddy, Nagarkurnool, Nirmal, Nizamabad, Hanumakonda, Medak, Warangal, Rajanna Sircilla, Jagtiyal, Mahabubnagar and Kothagudem.
Earlier, three sweet shops in Hyderabad lost licences after TG SAFE raids last week.
The officials found hygiene violations and other food safety lapses during inspections and directed three establishments to stop business operations immediately in the interest of public health.
Enforcement officials found cobwebs, greasy exhaust, improper storage practices and poor personal hygiene among food handlers, some of whom had overgrown nails. Officials also reported storage pests in food articles, cockroach infestation and fungal contamination in pickles.
The three establishments were among 21 khoa and sweet manufacturing and retail units inspected by 11 enforcement teams comprising food safety officers and police personnel in the core urban region.
Across the inspections, officials collected 21 samples on suspicion of adulteration and seized 1,035 kg of food articles worth Rs 7,75,850, officials said.
–IANS
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