BHOPAL : Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) raided various sweets shops of state capital just ahead of Diwali on Wednesday. Various teams of FDA raided sweets shops of various areas. A team led by Dharmendra Nanonia raided Narmada Sweets home, Bairagarh, and collected samples of sweets. BS Dhakar and his team raided Gwalior sweets, New Market and Collected samples of sweets.
FDA has started a special drive to conduct raids on the sweet shops and sweet manufacturing units to safeguard public health. Large quantity of sweets is sold in Diwali festival. The traders and manufacturing units are not following the cleanliness and quality standards, say FDA officials. FDA has started keeping vigil on such units and conducting raids on such units. People who have any doubt about the quality, production, distribution, storage and sale of khowa and sweets should inform FDA. Before Diwali, customers queue up to buy sweets and chocolates to gift others and grocery items to make several food items. As a lot of milk-based products are used to make sweets, the FDA keeps a tab on the quality of milk sold by shopkeepers. Dhakar said, “FDA’s various teams have raided various sweets. It will continue till Diwali. Sweets were stored in unhygienic gunny bags having no labels.”
As per the sweets shops owner, FDA raids harass shops owners. It takes lot of labour to prepare sweets and if FDA conducts raids ahead of festivals, it gives wrong message to public and it damages the business.