“All adulterators will later or sooner be caught. No one can evade law for long,” said KS Pannu, Commissioner Food and Drug Administration (CDFA)Punjab while informing that a Milk and Milk Product Seller had been duping the Food Safety Teams for past ten days and was carrying on the sale of adulterated products, unabated.Detailing the modus operandi, CFDA informed that the seller from Malerkotla in Sangrur used to sell spurious MMP in Ludhiana. He brought the products in a vehicle and used to park it in a pre –designated place every morning. On a tip off, the Food Safety Team conducted the raid but he deceived by changing the delivery time. The team kept the search on, but he managed to elude by constantly changing the time and place of delivery in Ludhiana. Finally, in a joint raid by food safety and dairy development officers, the adulterator was caught red handed selling spurious cottage cheese (paneer) for Rs. 160 per kilogram and milk at Rs. 30 per litre. “The samples have been taken action would be taken as per law,” said Pannu.In SBS Nagar, the food safety teams seized the stock of expired spices and condiments at Shri Durga Karyana Store on Balachaur Pojewal Road. Samples were taken and the entire stock of expired carom seeds (ajwain) was destroyed. The team also inspected sweet shops and destroyed about 10kg of spoiled sweets and directed the sellers to use good quality of MMP and maintain good hygienic conditions.
Similarly, a food safety team seized 120 kg of spurious paneer from Phagwara At Faridkot, sampling was done in Bishnandi Bazar and Himmatpura Basti, Jaito along with Dairy Development Department and at Purana Shalla and Bhani Mian Khan in Gurdaspur wherein Samples of milk, paneer and loose ghee were taken.
At Maan Dairy, Sujanpur approximately 2 Quintals of Paneer and 2.5 Quintals of Milk was found and samples taken. At other places, samples of water, cold drinks, haldi, lalmirch, besan, juice, milk and milk product were taken. Sampling was also done in Pathankot, Jandiala(Amritsar),Chabal (Tarn Taran), Dorangla(Gurdaspur), Jalandhar and Moga Milk carrying vehicles were intercepted early in the morning at about 6:00 am by setting up naka in Block Balachaur of District SBS Nagar to trap spurious MMP. One vehicle of Joshi Dairy Farm, Banga chowk, Garhshankar carrying about 2 quintals of milk and other vehicle of Choudhary Dairy Birowal was intercepted carrying about one quintal of mixed milk. Samples have been taken and sent for analysis.Along with the inspection drive, the Sensitization meetings with stakeholders are afoot at district and sub-divisional level, state wide. Meetings were held in Faridkot, Sangrur under Additional Deputy Commissioners, in Moonak and Kapurthala under Sub Divisional Magistrates with the dairy owners, halwais, milk vendors ,dhaba, hotel and restaurants owners. All were strictly instructed to sell and prepare genuine milk and milk products only and keep a record of bills from where the milk was being procured. They were also suggested to prepare Khoya/Paneer required for preparation of sweets at own premises or from trusted sources as Milk Products procured from other districts/states have been found usually to be of Low Quality . They have been informed that strict action will be taken, if someone is found engaged in selling/preparing spurious and substandard food products as it is a crime against humanity.