SAMBALPUR: With a long festive season lined up ahead, the Sambalpur Municipal Corporation has geared up to keep a tab on the eateries and roadside food vendors by launching a drive to ensure food safety during the celebrations.
The Food Safety Department of the SMC has been inspecting sanitation and safety standards being maintained at the hotels, and restaurants besides roadside carts. While in the first phase, the violators have been only served with notices, sources said, the drive is still continuing and will be intensified during the peak festivities.
Food safety officer (FSO), Zone 1, Sandeep Sourav said, the entire area under SMC has been divided into two zones for effective monitoring. A squad has been formed comprising a food safety officer, SMC, district food safety officer, health officer, SMC, district public health officer and police, who have been raiding multiple establishments every day since last around two weeks.
“A precautionary raid has already been conducted not only in hotels and eateries but also in some food manufacturing units across the city to prevent the vendors from violating the food safety standards or adulteration during the festivities, “ he added.
He further said, that the checking is mostly being done to find whether vendors have the required license and permissions for their establishment as a lot of new eateries and carts have mushroomed during the festive season. “Out of around 300 units around 20 per cent were found to be operating without any license. Similarly, many other outlets which were using bad quality of materials were issued notice and their raw materials including adulterated ingredients and stale food, colouring agents etc were seized and disposed,” he informed.
Apart from eateries, the officials are also inspecting vegetable and fruit vendors and asking them to maintain hygiene standards. Likewise, enforcement has also been launched on the sale of guthkas and restricted tobacco products. On Tuesday alone, a fine of `3,000 has been collected from violators.