TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The officials of the Food and Drugs Administration raided several establishments manufacturing and selling Diwali sweets and suspended the operations at one manufacturing unit in Borim.
“Investigation by the food safety officers revealed that jelebi containing ‘alum’ was procured by one Ambal Purohit of M/s Purohit Food Products, who has a sweets manufacturing unit at Shirshim, Borim. On inspecting this unit, the same has been directed to suspend operations until further notice,” Director of FDA Salim Veljee said adding that action was taken on account of unsanitary and unhygienic conditions at the premises.
As part of the Diwali drive, the enforcement staff of FDA has drawn around 70 samples of various categories of sweets such as pedas, jelebis, laddos, Mysore park, milk cake, kalakand, mava, barfi, bataashu, soan papdi, lassi, dry fruits, halwa, yoghurt, etc.
The other samples were found to be safe and conforming to the standards of quality. However one sample of jelebi analysed was found to contain ‘alum’ which otherwise is not permitted to be added in such sweets.
Alum is chemically potassium aluminium sulfate which is mostly used in the food industry for pickling and baking powder.
“Although Alum is approved food additive, its main purpose is to keep the food article crisp; however, the same is not allowed to be used in jalebi,” Veljee said.
