BHUBANESWAR: With the Durga Puja inching closer, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has formed three zonal-level special squads to crack down on shops and street vendors not maintaining the quality and hygiene standards while serving food to the customers.
Officials of the civic body informed that the inspection drive will be intensified once the festival begins, and those flouting the norms will be heavily penalised. Apart from the existing hotels and other food outlets, over 1,000 temporary kiosks and roadside eateries are expected to come up around major pandals this year, they added. Keeping this in mind, the civic body has planned surprise checks in food stalls during the festivities to ensure that the food safety standards and hygiene protocols are being properly maintained.
BMC food safety officer Satyajit Pal informed that three special squads each comprising two food safety officers have been formed for southeast, southwest and north zones of the city. The teams will visit different pandals and nearby hotels during the festival for quality inspection. They will be accompanied by the members of Team Shine, the enforcement squads of BMC.
The food safety wing of the corporation has already launched a crackdown against traders and vendors and have destroyed over a quintal of stale and adulterated food, while imposing a penalty of Rs 25,000, Pal said.
“The sweet shop owners, hotels and street vendors have been asked not to use food colour or other harmful substances during preparing food,” he added.