MP Food Safety Alert Ahead Of Diwali As 1,894 Food Samples Remain Pending For Six Months, Special Teams Deployed In Bhopal

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): About 1,894 samples are pending for testing with the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) in MP. However, as per the FDA, around 1,081 samples were disposed of. Fines of up to Rs 3.15 crore were imposed, but Rs 1.23 crore has been recovered.

Samples were collected in three months from April. So, these samples are from the last six months. Most samples were taken during festivals like Rakshabandhan.

DK Verma, senior food safety officer, said, “In Bhopal, three teams led by food officials have been constituted to check dumping of adulterated mawa for the Diwali festival.

Similarly, division-level flying squads have also been constituted for it. An order has been issued for implementation of the anti-adulteration drive. Main focus is milk products like mawa, sweets, namkin, oil, etc.”

Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) district president Dharmendra Sharma said, “FDA does not have sufficient infrastructure for testing. So, they only collect the samples.

Two-thirds of the samples are pending for the last six months and now, for Diwali, they have launched the drive. They should get test results in 15 days in the interest of traders and customers.”

Narmadapuram leads with 344 pending cases, followed by Ujjain with 285

Top 10 districts with highest pending cases

District

Pending cases

Narmadapuram

344

Ujjain

285

Bhind

189

Morena

121

Jabalpur

121

Dhar

92

Bhopal

68

Dewas

50

Ashok Nagar

46

Shajapur

44

Indore

30