Uttarakhand: Dhami government will tighten the noose on adulterators, Chief Secretary gave instructions to increase testing labs and run a state-wide checking campaign

The 5th meeting of the State Level Advisory Committee on Safe Food and Healthy Diet was held in the Secretariat on Thursday under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Anand Bardhan. During the meeting, the Chief Secretary directed to conduct a joint campaign with the FDA of the concerned states for testing milk and milk products coming from within and outside the state to prevent adulteration in milk and milk products. The Chief Secretary said that joint monitoring and enforcement of food products should be done with mutual cooperation by sharing information with the FDA of Uttar Pradesh.

The Chief Secretary directed to take strict action as per rules against the persons involved in adulteration on a regular basis. He said that strong advocacy should be done on the cases going on in the courts related to adulteration. The Chief Secretary said that there is a need to strengthen the food testing infrastructure in the state. He said that testing labs should be increased so that the testing of food samples can be done properly, and also, Food Safety on Wheels should be implemented on the ground as soon as possible.

The Chief Secretary also talked about promoting Eat Right Campus Certification further. Also directed that quality should be ensured in the mid-day meal and take home ration given in Anganwadi centers. The Chief Secretary has directed to prepare a mechanism for used cooking oil collection to remove used cooking oil from the food chain. He said that till the collection mechanism is not strong, it will be difficult to remove used cooking oil from the food chain. He directed to prepare a plan for this soon.

On this occasion, Secretary R. Rajesh Kumar informed that in the financial year 2024-25, samples of 1684 food items were taken, out of which 1509 have been analyzed. In this, 62 samples were found unsafe and 78 samples were found to be substandard or misbranded. He said that samples were also taken on the travel routes during the Chardham Yatra and Kanwar Yatra. Under the Sarv Safe Food program launched on the occasion of World Food Safety Day (07 June 2025), a total of 1000 street food vendors are being trained in the Kumaon region. So far 18 trainings have been organized to train street food vendors. 540 street food vendors have been trained in Rudrapur and Kashipur. The remaining 460 street food vendors will be trained in Champawat, Ranikhet, Almora and Bageshwar.

Secretary Ravinath Raman, Chandresh Kumar Yadav, Additional Secretary Mrs. Anuradha Pal and other concerned senior officers were present on this occasion.