Friday, 08 April 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
The district food safety department took samples of Paneer for quality test on Thursday which was being transported from Uttar Pradesh (UP) to Mussoorie allegedly on demands of hotels and restaurant operators for cheaper dairy products. The district food safety officer PC Joshi informed that demand of dairy products like milk and Paneer increases in Mussoorie’s hotels and restaurants during summer which is a peak season for tourism but since production of milk is low in Dehradun, supply from other states increases during this time. The department has also received complaints that some establishments specifically demand for cheaper dairy products to serve at higher prices to tourists that increase the potential risk of the supply of adulterated dairy products. The food safety officer said that the department is also monitoring such establishments in Mussoorie and cases against 20 such traders have already been registered in the past one week under the Food Safety Standards Act 2006.
He said that on the line of such complaints, the department received information about adulterated milk and Paneer being supplied from Saharanpur and Muzaffarnagar to Mussoorie in a private vehicle. As per the directions of district magistrate R Rajesh Kumar, the joint teams of Food Safety and Drug Administration (FDA) and district food safety officers arrived near Mussoorie diversion to check the quality of the dairy items at 4 AM on Thursday, said Joshi. He stated that on noticing the team near the diversion, a car coming towards Mussoorie turned back which was then chased by the officials till Sahastradhara Road. The teams checked the car and found several blocks of Paneer. They took five samples of the Paneer which have been sent for a quality test in the government lab. Joshi said that legal action will be taken under the Food Safety Standards Act 2006 if the report indicates any kind of adulteration in the collected samples. Besides Joshi, senior food safety officers Ramesh Singh, Sanjay Tiwari and Manju Rawat were also present during the checking.
