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Gandhinagar, Gujarat : The state government has taken a big decision keeping in mind the health of the entire people of Gujarat. The Health Minister has announced a ban on the sale of analog paneer across the state. Now analog paneer, cheese cannot be produced or sold in the entire state.
A big decision has been taken by the Health Department of the Gujarat government for the interests of public health and consumers. Analog paneer has been banned by the state government. The state government said that Gujarat is the leading dairy state of the country. Quality milk and milk products reach the people due to the hard work of our lakhs of milk producing farmers. When a consumer buys paneer or other milk products, he is confident that he is buying genuine paneer made from pure milk.
But for some time now, products that look like paneer but are made from vegetable oil and other non-dairy ingredients instead of milk have been seen in the market. Introducing such products as paneer misleads consumers, causes harm to genuine dairy producers and raises serious questions about food safety.
Cases of such non-standardized products were found during sampling and laboratory testing conducted by the State Food and Drug Regulatory Authority across the state. Taking this situation seriously, in the interest of public health and in exercise of powers conferred under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, the Gujarat Government is prohibiting the manufacture, storage, transportation, distribution and sale of unstandardized analogue paneer, cheese and butter in the entire state. This ban will be implemented keeping in mind the safety of public health and the interest of consumers.
The Gujarat government has taken this prohibitory action against analogue cheese to prevent activities that mislead the consumers. Any person or food business operator who violates this prohibition will be subject to strict legal action as per the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
The Health Minister appeals to all manufacturers, traders, hotels, restaurants, caterers and other food business operators to sell and use only standard and genuine cheese and to fully comply with the law.
Report By – Abhijit Tushar Bhatt
