Surveillance checks by officials on banana ripening and cashew quality lead to fines up to Rs 25,000
FOOD SAFETY DRIVE: FDA’s Designated Officer, Richard Noronha, along with food safety officers Amit Mandrekar, Lenin De Sa, Darlan Diukar and staff of the Food and Drugs Administration Goa during a surveillance drive in Mapusa and the Calangute beach bel
MAPUSA
Six shops were penalised with fines ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 25,000 for various violations during a surveillance drive carried out by the Food and Drugs Administration Goa at the Mapusa market yard and the Calangute beach belt to assess the safety and quality of bananas and cashew nuts sold to consumers and tourists.
The drive began at the Mapusa Market Yard, where the FDA team verified the ripening methods used by fruit vendors and collected surveillance samples of bananas.
The inspection was conducted as a follow-up to a coordination meeting previously held with yard officials and fruit vendors, during which vendors had assured authorities that they would not resort to unapproved methods of ripening.
Officials said that during the checks at the yard, no suspicious activity or illegal ripening practices were detected.
However, a few vendors operating outside St Xavier’s College were penalised under Section 69 for failing to comply with earlier directions issued by the department.
The surveillance drive was later extended to the beach belt in Calangute, where 12 cashew shops were inspected. With assistance from traffic police personnel, the team approached tourists and requested them to purchase cashew nuts from selected outlets as decoy customers. The nuts purchased were subsequently examined by the officials to verify their quality.
During the checks, authorities observed that the lowest-grade oily cashew nuts were not being sold to tourists and that the cashew nuts available for sale were largely of acceptable quality. However, several vendors were found to be violating labelling norms. One outlet, Ms Patel Cashew, was found selling low-grade pepper-coated cashew nuts.
Overall, six out of the 12 shops inspected were penalised with fines ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 25,000. Officials also confiscated 50 kilograms of low-quality, unlabelled pepper-coated cashew nuts and 10 kilograms of unlabelled “stone chocolate”.
Additionally, a shawarma vendor in the area was fined Rs 5,000 for not complying with earlier directives issued by the department.
The inspection team comprised Richard Noronha, Food Safety Officers Amit Mandrekar, Lenin De Sa, Darlan Diukar, and staff member Sandeep Shelke. The drive was conducted under the guidance of Shweta Dessai.
