Several food establishments inspected, 12 challaned

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Feb 8: To ensure that no unsafe food is being served to customers/attendants visiting hospitals, Food Safety wing of Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) today conducted a special drive around the hospitals premises in Jammu and challaned 12 food establishments for violation of Food Safety rules.
The inspecting team was headed by Dr Parvesh Kumar, Assistant Commissioner, Food Safety, Municipal Limit Jammu. The team randomly checked several food establishments in the vicinity of Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu, Dental College Jammu and Government Gandhi Nagar Hospital.
The team challaned 12 food establishments for unhygienic and insanitary conditions and stopped commercial activities of four of them as their premises was not up to standards while FSSAI licenses of 3 were suspended till further order.
Amongst challaned were Mehra Dhaba, Chai Desi India, Treat Restaurant, Jammu Hotel Palace, Novika Dhaba and Baba Food Corner near Dental College and Sam n Sam Fast Food, Amit Tea Stall Vaishno Dhaba and Krishna Dhaba at Maheshwar Chowk near GMC Jammu.
The team also lifted samples of milk and milk products of Surya Milk and Pargal Cheese Corner and bakery items from Gandhi Nagar and sent to food testing lab for analysis
Besides these, the team inspected hostel canteens of Dental College, Girls Hostel GMC Jammu, Hostel Mess of AMT School Bakshi Nagar and challaned contractors of Boys and Girls canteen of Dental College. The team also lifted samples of cooked food items from AMT School Bakshi Nagar.
The team also created awareness amongst shopkeepers regarding norms of food safety and further instructed them to improve infrastructure and use good quality of raw material for cooking and improve sanitation and drainage facilities in their establishments in order to avoid cross contamination.