5 illegal water treatment plants & a shop sealed in Malda

Malda: A joint raid by the Malda District Food Safety Department and District Enforcement Branch (DEB) on food safety in English Bazaar and Old Malda areas on Friday morning resulted in the shutdown of five illegal water bottling plants.

The owners did not have proper licenses to run these plants from the State Water Investigation Directorate (SWID), Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). One of these factories is located in Old Malda Block and the remaining four are in English Bazar.

A total of 1076.40 kg of suspected adulterated tomato sauce has also been seized and sent to the laboratory for testing.

The department will take appropriate action only after receiving the report.

Some sweetmeat shops near 420 More on Manskamana Road under the English Bazar Police Station also came under the radar of the team.

One shop among them was closed as it was running without a valid license. Two other shops were given improvement notices for cleanliness standards which were not up to the mark.

With Durga Puja around the corner, people tend to eat out. This results in increased sales in restaurants and eateries. However, owing to the huge rush, the food quality usually deteriorates. So the district administration has started surveillance to monitor the food safety standards in the shops and restaurants of the district.

Vaibhav Choudhary, Additional District Magistrate Malda, said: “The district administration is striving hard to ensure people safe food and water during the festivals. Any adulterated food or food items will be dealt with strictly. Such vigilance will be conducted before this puja festival widely. The shops also have to maintain cleanliness standards for public health and hygiene.”