PANAJI
FDA officials had initially detained a Maruti Eco van at Panaji that was carrying around 55 kilos of unlabeled kalakand packed in two boxes of 40 kilos and 15 kilos each.
Upon interrogation, Rama Chaudhary, resident of Karaswada, Thivim who was driving the car disclosed there was a larger consignment that was arriving by an interstate Pune to Goa non air conditioned bus.
The bus was then intercepted at the Margao interstate bus terminus where the additional consignment was found.
The packages were found stored in the non-air-conditioned bus below the passenger seats and not in the conventional luggage compartment. The entire consignment was pulled out of the bus in the presence of Chaudhry who disclosed that the consignment was brought from one Gujarat-based supplier, M/s Vahanvati Sweet Mart at Mehesana, Gujarat. There were no documents with the consignment.
In a statement issued by the FDA, Director Salim Veljee said, “A total of 25 plastic bags, each containing 30 kgs of mava/kalakanand (totaling 750 kgs worth around Rs 1.50 lakh), which was brought under a misdeclaration/wrongly label declaration labeled as ‘Vahanvati Special Barfi’ was found. The bags did not contain any particulars of the date of packing, etc and all the 25 bags were unloaded from the bus and confiscated.”
Improper storage of milk-based food articles or its raw materials during transportation are unfit for consumption on account of its high risk of spoilage and microbial contamination, he said.
“The Maruti vehicle as well as the person accompanying the said vehicle have been detained for further interrogation and investigation in the manner to identifying the names of the person for whom the said mava / kalakand raw material were brought from Gujarat are on,” said Veljee, adding
that those involved will be booked under the Food Safety and standards Act, 2006 and the Rules and Regulation.
The FDA enforcement team consisted of Food Safety Officers Rajaram Patil, Shailesh Shenvi and Shivdas Naik.
