Rise in use of synthetic khoya in sweets

Even as the health officials seized a huge quantity of synthetic khoya being sold in the open market yesterday but it also pointed towards the possible sale of the same in sweet meats and other preparations in the market.

A vigilant citizen HS Dawar said the sale of sweat meats and other preparations made from spurious khoya and other sub-standard items cannot be ruled out. “The sale of traditional sweet meats pick up in the festive season and the fear of adding of spurious ingredients is also high in this season,” he said.

Traditional halwai shops churning out mouth-watering delicacies are situated in the nook and corner of the city. Apparently, the task of checking these products became a hilarious task for the Health Department.

A resident of Sultanwind road Surjit Singh said every year around Diwali and other festivals the news of adulterated khoya being confiscated gains currency and hogs limelight.He felt that the government’s department concerned must accelerate its activity to stop spurious khoya and other ingredients being pushed into the market. He expressed his apprehension that other adulterated food items and ingredients must also be pushed into the market by unscrupulous elements to multiply their profit margins. This despite the fact that the new Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 was introduced in the country.

The District Health Office, which is tasked to nab the people involved in adulterating food and other eatables, has been deployed two Food Safety Officers (FSO), besides a trainee FSO has also been attached for the field duty.

Headed by a District Health Officer it has office staff in shape of a clerk and class fourth. Besides, the district does not have any food testing lab and each sample has to be dispatched to the Chandigarh laboratory. It took around 20 days to get the result of the food test.

Dr Shiv Karan Kahlon, District Health Officer (DHO), who is the designated officer for the implementation of the act, said Amritsar was not the only city that does not have a lab and each district in the state send its samples to Chandigarh.

He stressed that the confiscation of synthetic Khoya yesterday should not be seen clubbed with the festive season. He said that confiscation of adulterated eatables was a continuous process and his department was regularly spotting spurious khoya and destroying the same.

About the exact number of halwai shops in the city he said the data was not yet available as the registration under the new Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, was undergoing.

He shared that so far 6,000 shops got registered under the act while 700 licenses were issued as the deadline for registration has been postponed to February 4, 2014. It is relevant to mention that the food businesses, with an annual turnover of Rs 12 lakh are required to get registered while those establishments with an annual turnover exceeding Rs 12 lakh are required to obtain a license.