The Uttarakhand Food Safety and Drug Administration has launched a statewide anti-adulteration crackdown on hoteliers and shopkeepers selling milk, Khoya (dry milk) and paneer(soft white cheese).

Milk product suppliers across the state are being raided to collect samples of their goods and a penalty of up to five lakh imposed with decoy teams fanning out to gather intelligence against adulterators.

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Following order from the State Health Secretary and Commissioner Food Safety Dr R Rajesh Kumar special vigilance is being maintained at entry points of the interstate border area of Dehradun, Haridwar, and Udham Singh Nagar under the leadership of Joint Commissioner Dr RK Singh and Additional Commissioner Tajbar Singh Jaggi for mainly milk products coming from border districts of Uttar Pradesh.

Kumar, who is also the commissioner, Uttarakhand Food Safety and Drugs Administration, informed that a comprehensive SOP has been issued for the anti-adulteration drive and action against the erring hoteliers and other food business establishments across the state.

He said senior food safety officials have been instructed to be on the ground and sample every suspected milk product and take strict action against adulterators in view of coming festivities.

The SOP envisages penalties of up to five lakh and six years imprisonment for the shopkeepers found guilty of adulteration. Kumar said although the drive though is new, it’s being monitored directly by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and Health Minister Dhan Singh Rawat.

The SOP issued to all the district magistrates calls for strict action against adulterated food manufacturers, dealers, suppliers and retail shopkeepers under the provisions of the Food Safety Standards Act-2006 and Rules 2011. The action taken against shopkeepers and traders during the drive will be reviewed periodically and a daily report will be sent online to the Food Safety and Drugs Administration Uttarakhand through email.

Joint Commissioner Dr RK Singh said strict vigil is being maintained in the border areas adjoining Uttar Pradesh. The department has made arrangements for on-spot sampling of the milk products and other food items in the vehicles entering at interstate border posts from outside the state. This helps immediate identification of the erring suppliers of the food items and prompt legal action against them.”

Singh further informed that joint teams have been constituted across the state to crack down on adulterators. The teams are raiding hotels, dairy food manufacturers and other shopkeepers to keep adulterated foods away from the market. A vigilance cell has been created by the department to receive complaints and share it with the raiding teams on the field. Along with this, monitoring is also being done through surveillance. It is worth noting that those who mix poison in Holi sweets are being curbed on a large scale.

Additional Commissioner Tajbar Singh Jaggi stated that all 13 districts in the state have been divided into three groups to deal with adulterators. Teams engaged in food sampling have been provided with mobile food laboratories in every district. This will help the raiding teams to do sampling and examine it immediately in order to initiate action against culprits shopkeepers.

Jaggi informed decoy teams of the officials have also been constituted to keep vigil and gather intelligence on the adulteration being brought in the state. Besides enforcement and surveillance against adulteration the decoy teams will also make consumers aware about adulterated goods coming to them. Raiding teams have also been provided police cover for security reasons.