Paan shops under scanner for food safety

VADODARA: For the first time in the recent past, the

food safety

officers of the

Vadodara Municipal Corporation

(

VMC

) checked ‘paan’ shops in the city. The officials checked 15 such outlets in the city including prominent shops as well as street vendors and destroyed a large amount of material kept at these shops.

The shops that were checked by the officers late on Wednesday evening include five very prominent ones located in the Alkapuri and Sayajigunj. It also came to light that 12 of the 15 outlets checked by the officers did not have food safety licences. Officials said that even pan shops were covered under the Food Safety and Standards Act.

The officers destroyed 56 packets of lime that is used in paan as well as ‘masalas’ prepared at the shops. They also destroyed 28 packets of catechu or ‘kattha’, 31 jars of ‘chutney’ used to add flavour to ‘pans’. These packets did not have manufacturing or expiry dates as well as batch numbers.