Food safety drive finds labelling, hygiene violations at sweet manufacturing units across Karnataka

The Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA) Department has stepped up inspections of sweet manufacturing units across Karnataka, with officials finding various violations at several establishments during a special enforcement drive on Monday.

The inspections covered units in Bengaluru Urban and Rural, Greater Bengaluru Authority area, Mysuru, Dakshina Kannada, Belagavi, Kalaburagi, and Hubballi-Dharwad.

The drive is part of the department’s ongoing food safety enforcement efforts following inspections of hotels, restaurants, and other food establishments across the State in recent weeks.

Officials also found several products without mandatory declarations such as the manufacturer’s name and address, batch number, date of manufacture, among others.

At Asha Sweets in Yeshwanthpur, around 49 kg of tea powder, 20 kg of khova/kalakand and 2.5 kg of pistachios were seized as suspected food products, with samples collected for further legal action.

At Mithai Factory in Bengaluru, officials seized 14 packets of chikki with incorrect labelling, five litres of expired Nandini curd and 19 packets of improperly labelled chocolate decoration materials.

At Word of Mysore Pack in Mysuru, 367 kg of ready-to-eat savouries, 4 kg of cocoa powder, 4.5 kg of cracked cocoa beans and 6 kg of khova were seized. The total value of these products was estimated at ₹1.56 lakh.

Other units inspected included Sandesh Sweets, India Sweets and Venkateshwara Sweets in Bengaluru; Triveni Bakery and Mita Bharat in Hubballi; Kalyani Sweets and A1 Kunda in Belagavi; A1 Purohit in Belagavi; and Popular Bakery in Puttur. Notices were issued to several of these establishments over hygiene or other food safety violations.

At A1 Purohit, around 10 kg of expired chocolate flavouring was seized and 5 kg of rasgulla was disposed of as per prescribed procedure. At Sandesh Sweets, four samples suspected to be non-conforming were collected and sent for laboratory analysis.

The Commissioner’s statement said further legal action would be taken against food business operators found violating the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, and the rules and regulations framed under it.