BHUBANESWAR: Food safety teams destroyed around 350 kg of stale and unhygienic sweets during a three-day inspection drive across the city ahead of Diwali. Five establishments were also temporarily shut down for violating hygiene standards.
The drive covered sweet manufacturing units, e-commerce dark stores, food stalls and dry fruit repackaging facilities. Officials said the latest exercise targeted dark stores operated by e-commerce platforms, including Instamart, Blinkit, BigBasket, Amazon and Flipkart. The drive also focused on sweet manufacturing hubs and confectionery units.
During the inspections, teams found flies contaminating sweets and milk containers, besides stale food and expired flavour essences allegedly used in the preparation of sweets. As many as 18 vendors and traders were penalised, with fine of Rs 37,500 collected during the drive.
The team also inspected dry fruit repackaging units in Jharpada, Saheed Nagar, Nayapalli and Old Town to ensure compliance with food safety, said FSSAI designated officer Pratikshya Das Mahapatra.