Team Goemkarponn
CALANGUTE/CANDOLIM: The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) continued its special surveillance drive against the sale of substandard cashew nuts and related products in the coastal belt on Wednesday.
Four shops in Calangute and Candolim, which were shut on Tuesday, were formally booked after Food Safety Officers Safia Khan, Pritam Parab, Budgo Gurav, and Darlan Diukar drew legal samples for further action.
During the drive, another shop, Ms Madho Cashew at Candolim, was directed to close operations for selling substandard cashew. A factory outlet of Ms Nutinn was penalised ₹50,000 for selling misbranded confectionery items.
In a major crackdown, a processing unit at Candolim operated by Rajesh Chawan was shut down for manufacturing masala cashews using poor-quality nuts. Additionally, a tiffin supply unit in Parra was ordered to close due to unhygienic operations.
The FDA team also seized approximately 200 kg of substandard cashew during the raid.
The surveillance drive was conducted by officers Richard Noronha, Rajaram Patil, Amit Mandrekar, Lenin De Sa, along with MTS staff Sandeep Shelke, Pradeep Parsekar, Arjun Naik, and Babaji Korankar, under the guidance of FDA Director Shweta Dessai.
