The Directorate of Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) conducted a large-scale surveillance operation at three key state borders—Patradevi, Keri, and Mollem—starting from 8:00 pm on August 21 and continuing until 7:00 am on August 22. The drive aimed to inspect interstate food-laden vehicles entering Goa and ensure compliance with food safety standards.
During the operation, the FDA team drew samples of various food items for analysis and observed notable improvements in compliance compared to previous visits. However, in its efforts to further enhance public health safety, the team detained several unlabelled and unverified food items:
Keri Border: 1,760 kg of unlabelled chicken and 500 kg of unlabelled paneer
Mollem Border: 700 kg of unlabelled chicken from unverified sources
Patradevi Border: 10 kg of khoa
The officials also sensitized food suppliers on legal requirements for labelling and sourcing. Several samples of vegetables and fruits were collected for further analysis.
The drive was conducted under the guidance of Designated Officer Richard Noronha in North Goa and led by FDA Director Shweta Dessai. Key officials involved included:
Patradevi: Yogita Sirsat, Ram Dhuri, Bhakti Walke, Pritam Parab, Pradeep Parsekar, Arjun Naik
Keri: Rajaram Patil, Lenin De Sa, Amit Mandrekar, Darlan Diukar, Gaurish Gaonkar, Sandeep Shelke
Mollem: Shailesh Shenvi, Atul Dessai, Abhishek Naik, Atamaram Naik, Swapnil Faterpekar, Sudit Naik, Domingo Gonsalves
The FDA reaffirmed its commitment to scaling up food safety standards and ensuring higher compliance across the state.