Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Ahead of Raksha Bandhan festival, the Food Safety Administration department has launched a special drive against food adulteration and raided three places in the city on Tuesday.
During the raids, the teams seized about 895 kilograms (approx 9 quintals) of suspected adulterated mawa (khoya) and sweets from there. Samples have been collected and sent to the laboratory for testing to initiate further action against those involved in adulteration.
On the instruction of district collector Asheesh Singh and ADM Gaurav Benal, three teams of the department stopped an auto rickshaw carrying 13 bundles of mawa (around 325 kilograms) in suspicious condition near Bhandari Bridge.
The auto driver could not say where the mawa came from and no one claimed ownership of it at the spot. The entire mawa, therefore, was seized for further investigation. Another team recovered 14 bundles of mawa (about 350 kg) in a passenger bus in suspicious condition at Sarwate Bus Stand and seized it.
Additionally, samples of sweet mawa were taken and about 120 kg of sweets and 100 kg of mawa were also seized from Shri Ganesh Dairy and Namkeen shop at Palda Square. In total, around 895 kilograms of mawa and sweets were seized during the action on Tuesday.
The officials claimed that the Food Safety Administration department will continue such regular inspections before Raksha Bandhan festival to ensure safe and adulteration-free food for consumers.
Senior Food Safety officer Manish Swami informed Free Press that the mawa recovered from the bus was brought from Mahidpur and Nagda. However, the sender and receiver didn’t reach there.
It was believed that the mawa was loaded from villages. Information is also being gathered from the bus driver. Swami further said that the samples are being sent to the state food testing laboratory. Once the reports are received, legal action will be taken against adulterators as per rules.
