FDA inspects street joints as part of summer drive

Mumbai: Officials of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) carried out surprise inspection of a few street joints, juice bars and ice-cream parlours in the city to examine the food being served to people during the summer season.

The move came after a food stall at Kurla railway station was sealed Monday for allegedly selling poor quality lemon water to customers. FDA officers said that most food business operators tended to either adulterate or use substandard quality food or food ingredients to make a quick buck. This mainly included cold beverages, ice-creams and flavoured milk among others.

Maharashtra FDA joint commissioner (food) Shailesh Adhao said, “The inspections are part of the massive summer drive and there are lots of places we still need to check. We drew a couple of samples to evaluate the quality of food and food ingredients used. The reports are awaited currently.”

The checks were primarily carried out at sugar cane juice and sherbet joints; ice cream, kulfi and ice candy joints; ice manufacturers; Neera stalls and packaged drinking water sellers.

During the summer season, street-side stalls and joints mainly sell sherbets using various food colours and flavours; these things do brisk business including sugarcane juice, lime juice, sodas and ice golas. “These stalls operators often compromise on their cleanliness and sanitation in order to keep prices as low as possible, and don’t keep good quality. The water they use for making their lime juice should also be tested,” said Dr Sanjay Dabhade, a health activist at Jan Abhiyan.

“Milk and milk products sold in the city have higher chances of being adulterated or of being poor in quality. People should insist FDA officials to carry out regular checks with stringent action. If anyone comes across such kind of things, he or she should report cases of adulteration or substandard quality to the FDA and seek proper bills. If consumer activism improves, the detection of such cases will be higher,” said Dabhade.