Only 10K food sellers have permits in city

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

There are several hotels and food item sellers in the city, but only 10,000 of them have obtained a permit from the Food and Drug Administration for selling food items. The officers have appealed that the residents purchasing the food items from hotels, restaurants, wada pav, bhel, panipuri stalls should be aware of this and they should check whether these sellers have a proper permit. People do not take precautions and then expect that FDA should take action if any untoward incident occurs after eating the food. Hence, there is a need the people should be aware.

The food item sellers whose annual turnover is below Rs 12 lakh have to be registered with FDA and those whose turnover is more than Rs 12 lakh have to obtain a permit from FDA. However, only 10,215 sellers have registered or taken permits from FDA, hence the administration has come on alert mode now and has initiated a severe drive against the sellers in the city.

The persons who prepare food items, transport and sell them have to take a permit. These include even milk vendors and open and packed food sellers.

Under the food safety Act section 63, there is a provision of a fine of upto Rs 5 lakh and six months imprisonment for breach of safety rules. In all, 40 traders have breached the provisions of permit No. 14 and all these cases are sub-judice now, of which a fine of Rs 2.60 lakh has been collected in 23 cases.

The shop owners should highlight the permit at a place where the customers can see it easily. This permit is issued after the completion of various criteria like cleanliness, purity, and other conditions. Customers should take a bill whenever they purchase food items.

FDA joint commissioner Ajeet Maitre said a permit is mandatory to prepare, transport and sell the food items. FDA has created awareness in this regard among the people. Punitive action is taken if anyone is doing the food business without a permit. People should complain about such businessmen with FDA. The names of the complainants will be kept confidential.