Visakhapatnam: 'Best-before-date' labels for sweets

Visakhapatnam: Sweet sellers will now have to display the manufacturing date and best before date labels of their products along with the price tags.

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) exhort shop owners to comply with the new labelling and make sure that the products they sell do not pose any potential risk to the customers after consumption.

The move comes in the wake of multiple instances of selling stale and expired sweets to the customers.

The FSSAI issued orders for the 'mithaiwalas' to exhibit best before date and date of manufacturing a few months before. But due to the corona virus pandemic followed by the closure of the outlets, the new norm could not be implemented. With the government announcing lockdown relaxations gradually, the food inspectors intend to visit sweet stalls and bakeries to ensure compliance of the order. "The exercise of serving notices to the sweetshops and bakeries across the district has begun. Also, we are planning to create awareness among the mithaiwalas about the food safety standards they have to follow. Cases will be booked against those who fail to comply with the order," M Koteswara Rao, Food Safety Officer, GVMC.

In Visakhapatnam, there are about 400 to 500 small to big sweet outlets.

There is no mechanism to monitor the date of manufacturing of the sweets at the counters, especially the ones kept on the trays and in large containers.

The shelf life of the sweets is normally dependent on the ingredients that get into the preparation along with other components. Normally, sweets such as 'kalakand' have a single day shelf life, while other milk mithais such as 'rasamalai', Bengali sweets and badam milk will last for two days. However, laddu, khova, boondi laddu, sweet boondi, coconut burfi khova, among others will have a four-day shelf life. Dry fruits halwa and chikkies will last for a week. "So far, we have only exhibited the price of the product. Once we receive the order to showcase the manufacturing and best before date, we will ensure its compliance," says K Purushotham, who operates Siva Sai Bakery and Sweets.

Earlier, there's no clue about the products sold at sweet shops. With the new norm coming in place, customers can now buy sweets without the fear of bringing home a sub-standard quality product.