This is not the first time that packaged food products have come under the State Health Department’s scanner.
In the last one year, the Food Safety Division has booked several cases and collected a penalty of over Rs. 3 lakh from manufacturers of bakery items, milk, ghee, butter, tea, coffee, confectionaries, cereals and mineral water, among others.
FSSAI Deputy Director H.S. Shivakumar told The Hindu that the State Public Health Institute had analysed 2,164 samples in the last one year and slapped penalties for adulteration and selling substandard packaged items.
Few inspectors
He, however, admitted that they had only 66 Food Safety Officers in the department. “Despite that, we have been conducting checks regularly,” he said.
