JSR food vendors come under quality scanner before festival

Jamshedpur: Food safety department officials raided several street food stalls in the Sakchi area of the city popularly known as ‘Khao Galli' on Thursday evening to check the quality of the items being served to customers.The team, led by Md Manzar, collected samples from a dozen stalls in the food vending zone, which were sent for testing at the laboratory in Ranchi's Namkum.TOI on Mar 5 had highlighted the necessity of consuming healthy food and the demands of doctors from IMA Jamshedpur in this connection.Manzar said, "As Holi is round the corner, food safety checks will continue in the coming days too across the city to ensure people don't fall ill consuming unhealthy food during the festival time.""During raids, it came to light that many of the stall owners had no licence to do food business or their licence tenure had expired. These stall owners were instructed to seek formal nod from administration, if they wanted to continue with their business," said the official.The team also checked whether clean water in proper containers were being used by the owners to cook food along with cleanliness of the area where the stalls were set up."Popular sweet shops, who do brisk business during festival time, have been kept under strict vigil," said an official from the food department.Manzar said, "Food stall owners have been instructed not to serve food in newspaper or other printed paper and no single-use plastic bags should be used too, otherwise stringent action will be taken."Meanwhile, the raids have been welcomed by all sections of the society in Jamshedpur. Cardiologist Dr Neha Tiwari said,"Food safety is a basic right of any individual as it concerns his/her health. So the administration should regularly conduct surprise raids at food stalls all over the city to ensure quality items are served to customers."Teacher in a private school, Madhumita Chandra said, "The stall owners who do not pass the food quality check should be fined heavily so that in future they think 100 times before using sub-standard spices, reused oils or dirty water."