Why sweet sellers do not follow ‘best-before-use-date’ tag?

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department has issued a directive to its officials to ensure that confectioners (sweet sellers) mandatorily mention ‘best before use dates’ on the trays of all sweets they sell.

The FSSAI (Food Safety and Standard Authority of India) did issue an order in October, 2020 for the mention of ‘best before use dates’ of all food items for sale, including sweets. The despite the order, the state has no takers of this directive. Neither the Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs enforces the order, nor does the Department of Health and Family Welfare monitor it. In such a situation, there is every possibility of people consuming sweets that have crossed their expiry dates.

The Northeast Chapter of the Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat submitted a memorandum to State Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Ranjeet Kumar Dass on sweet sellers not adhering to the FSSAI order on the mention of ‘best before use dates’ on sweet items they sell and the could-be consequences of this lapse. And the memorandum prompted the department to take up the issue, all of a sudden.

The department has asked its officials to make it mandatory for every confectioner to disclose ‘best before use dates’ on the tray of each sweet item on display for sale.

According to the FSSAI, apart from the expiry dates, the confectioners should mention whether the sweet items contain, oil, ghee or refined oil. It further says that sweets like Kalakand should be kept at room temperature and consumed the same day. Rasgulla, rasmalai, Rajbhog etc., should be stored in refrigerators and consumed within two days; Kaju katli, ghewar, besan laddu etc., should be consumed within seven days; and Barfi, milk cake, peda, etc., in four days, FSSAI said.

Renowned confectioners might have maintained all these strictures. Strict adherence to all these strictures by the whole lot of small and medium hoteliers in the state is open to question. Even for the Food, Civil Supplies, and Consumer Affairs Department, it may not be possible to keep an eye on every sweet seller in the state. What mechanism can ensure that the confectioners will be honest enough and not manipulate the best-before-use-date tag, which is a hand-written or computer-printed piece of paper?

Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, and Health and Family Welfare officials of the state may be active for a few days. However, in the absence of any concrete mechanism, how can one say that things will not be back to square one after a certain period of time, like the promptness shown to check the artificial ripening of fruits? Ripening fruits by using chemicals is still a practice in the state.

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