BENGALURU:A Bengaluru resident found an insect in his pickle that was manufactured by MTR. After complaining to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) in Chennai and Delhi,
Karnataka Food Safety Commissionerate finally inspected MTR factory premises - Indira Food Private Ltd - in Jigani on July 20. Pickle samples were sent to the Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) in Mysuru and the reports are awaited.
On July 12, Raj Sakhumalla posted on MTR’s Facebook page, “To my horror, found an unsliced bug in MTR Sliced Mango pickle, which was bought yesterday in Bangalore! It shows the callous attitude of both the manufacturers and authorities when it comes to food safety standards in India!”
“If the samples are found to be contaminated, the entire batch of pickle will be recalled by sending notices to vendors, retailers and shopkeepers who have purchased it,” said Dr Harshvardhan B, Special Squad, FSSAI Karnataka. The reports will be sent in 10 days.
MTR in a statement said, “We replied to the consumer within 24 hours and requested for samples of the product and its production batch details to facilitate our investigation.”
“Even after our repeated efforts, Sakhumalla has declined to share the necessary details including samples of the product and its production batch number with us. The only information the consumer shared with us was the month of production. We have done a thorough check of the production conditions of all batches of the variant for the month of production specified by the consumer. Our investigation did not reveal any anomalies,” it said.
Sakhumalla told The New Indian Express, “It is true that I didn’t give them the batch number based on my lawyer’s advice. Because there is a good chance that they can compromise samples or products from that particular batch before the FSSAI can conduct an inspection. However, I have furnished all relevant information including batch number, manufacturing date and other particulars to FSSAI.”