Firm hauled up for stocking mango pulp with `dead grubs, fungus'

Firm hauled up for stocking mango pulp with `dead grubs, fungus'

MUMBAI, MARCH 19: The 46th metropolitan court at Mazgaon has directed the owner of M/S Patel Ice Factory on the Andheri-Kurla Road to get samples of the mango pulp and other mango products stored with the firm analysed from an approved laboratory.

The order was passed on a complaint lodged by food inspector, A E Kerure, from the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) under the provisions of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954. The mango products stored in the firm were found to be ``unfit for human consumption'', according to the complaint.

Kerure had visited the firm on September 3, 1999, when one Deepak Kantilal Shah was found to be in-charge of the firm at the time. The food inspector found 120 plastic drums (each one packed with 25 kg of raw mango pieces), 200 tins (each packed with 16 kg of mango pulp) and 14 plastic drums (each containing 100 kg of sulphited mango pulp). He purchased samples of all three items from the stored stock.

During inspection, he found that the mango had not only deteriorated but was also infested with organisms. The entire stock was then seized under Section 10 (4) of the Prevention of Food Adultration Act. The stock was sent for analysis to the public analyst, state public health laboratory, Pune, through the local (health) authority and assistant health officer III, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), on October 10, 1999.

The analyst's report states that the raw mango pieces were ``infested with fungus and that it had dead grubs present in abundance''. It also found the mango pulp and sulphited mango pulp ``decomposed with gas formation''.

The FDA had submitted the report before the metropolitan court on October 15, 1999.

The state government has now instructed the public prosecutor with the Sessions Court to file a revision application against the order of the metropolitan court.