Expanding its statewide crackdown on food safety, the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued strict new directives mandating that all school canteens, hostel kitchens, mid-day meal contractors, and Anganwadis obtain an FSSAI license to operate.
FDA Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe announced that the orders, issued to ensure "safe food for every child in Maharashtra", aim to build a healthy food culture among children.
Under the new rules, items with excess fat, trans fats, and high sugar content are strictly prohibited from being sold or advertised within school premises and their immediate surroundings. School principals have been tasked with the direct responsibility of implementing and enforcing these norms on campus.
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The focus on educational institutions follows an unprecedented enforcement drive by the Mundhe-led FDA against unsafe food practices across Maharashtra. In recent weeks, the regulator has cracked down on food adulteration and poor hygiene, raiding and suspending the FSSAI licenses of several prominent hotels, restaurants, and elite city clubs.
Earlier, FDA Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe said that FDA have launched a new portal, complaints.mahafda.in, where citizens can directly flag food adulteration or unhygienic practices.
According to FDA, within just 24 hours of its launch, the website received around 10 lakh visits and was flooded with thousands of complaints.
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Under the new digital system, once a complaint is registered on the portal, the FDA's joint commissioner for the concerned region must take cognisance of it within 24 hours, after which it is assigned to an officer for action.
If that officer fails to take the required legal action within the stipulated timeframe, the complaint is automatically escalated to a senior official in the department, a mechanism Mundhe said was designed to build transparency and accountability into the system.
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