Lack of staff, testing facility hinders anti-adulteration drive

Lack of staff, testing facility hinders anti-adulteration drive Archit Watts/TNS

Jammu, October 10
With the festival season on, the authorities concerned have started a vigil on persons indulging in food adulteration. But there is only one public analyser to conduct tests on food samples collected from different markets of the city.
The Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC), the Directorate of Health and the Legal Metrology Department keep a check on this illegal practice. All these departments submit food samples for testing to the Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM) on the Canal Road here but the IIIM is already overburdened. The lack of testing facilities at the IIIM is reportedly hindering the anti-adulteration drive.
JMC officials say sometimes they face problems while dealing with food adulterers. They add due to the delay in sample testing the cases against defaulters also weaken. As a result, food adulteration is going on unchecked despite the fact that the authorities concerned collect a number of samples everyday and destroy huge quantities of adulterated milk and other adulterated food products.
Raman Sharma, a banker, said, “Diwali is approaching and sweet shops have already started preparing sweets. How can we know whether the sweets are adulterated or not when the departments concerned are facing staff shortage to keep a check on food adulteration?”
Health Officer of the JMC Mohammad Anwar Choudhary said, “Though we launch drives against food adulteration, sometimes the sample testing gets delayed. We often request the IIIM officials to get the tests done at the earliest.”
He added, “With the enactment of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, recently we are hopeful of getting a permanent solution to the problem.”