Summer is when people crave for ice creams and for a good reason. But they hardly notice if they are made according to the prescribed standards. To ensure quality products, food inspectors in Telangana have picked up ice cream samples and have sent them to the State Food Laboratory at Nacharam to know the percentage of fat in it and other aspects.
Officials from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Telangana, said 20 sample ice creams were picked up across the State this month, apart from 24 sample milk packets sold by different companies. The results of the tests are expected in the first week of April. “Chemical tests are being conducted on ice creams to know if the fat content and other aspects are as per the standards prescribed by the FSSAI. Ice creams should have 10% fat content and anything below it is considered sub-standard. Fine ranging up to ₹3 lakh could be imposed on those selling ice creams that have less than 10% fat in them,” said T. Vijay Kumar, Deputy Food Controller (In-Charge), FSSAI-Telangana. The officials added that by using less amount of fat, the manufacturers save money.
In case of milk, the officials cross-check if the claims of a company about its product are true.
Special drive
There are many places in the city where there is scant supply of drinking water that forces the residents to bank heavily on water supplied in cans. But no one knows if they are completely safe to drink.
To ensure that, a special drive would be conducted in April when samples of water in cans, bottles and packets would be collected. Microbiology and chemical tests would be conducted to know the presence of bacteria, fungus, salts such as calcium and magnesium, pH levels and others. It is learnt that the Microbiology Lab at State Food Laboratory at Nacharam is being upgraded, and its doors are expected to be open in April first week. If anyone wishes to know the quality of water that they are consuming every day, they can submit the samples to the State Food Laboratory.
The officials said only ₹ 200 would be charged per sample.
