Food mart sealed over expired items

Civic officials and police officers check the items at the food mart in Jalpaiguri on Wednesday. Picture by Biplab Basak

TT, Jalpaiguri: The municipality on Wednesday sealed a food mart here for allegedly storing products whose expiry dates were over.

Staff of the Jalpaiguri civic body, along with a police team led by Bisyasroy Sarkar, the IC of Jalpaiguri Kotwali, reached the food mart at Silpo Samity para and asked for chicken.

The staff in the food mart mentioned that there was no fresh chicken but few prepared chicken items were kept inside the freeze.

"The staff said they were not selling the food as their date was expired. Immediately, the police opened the freezer and recovered ready chicken, panir and ice cream. Sarkar asked the staff how they could believe that they were not selling the same products whose expiry was over. The officials sealed the food mart and asked the staff to come to the municipality office on Thursday with all papers," said a source.

On the other hand, a joint raid was conducted on many hotels at Kadamtala More here on Tuesday. But the police and the civic authorities did not enter a star category hotel.

A section of people in the town are surprised why the hotel was left untouched while the adjacent hotels were raided.

The civic staff entered the star hotel on Wednesday and didn't find stale food products.

Santanu Moitra, the executive officer of Jalpaiguri municipality, said: "We recovered the expired food and hence, sealed the outlet. I have asked the food mart owner to meet me in the office tomorrow with all the papers."