Kolkata Municipal Corporation food-safety teams found synthetic kesar, industrial ice, unauthorised colours, stale bread and expired milk during raids on more than 30 food stalls and shops in north Kolkata, the civic body said on Saturday.
The inspections covered Muktaram Babu Street, Nimtolla Ghat Street and Vivekananda Road as part of the KMC’s festive-season food-safety surveillance drive. The teams examined food items at pav bhaji stalls, lassi shops and sweet shops during the operation.
A senior KMC health department official said the teams found synthetic kesar being used at pav bhaji stalls and industrial ice at lassi shops. Unauthorised colours were detected in soan papdi sold at sweet shops. The teams also found stale bread and expired milk pouches being used at some establishments, the official said.
The civic teams discarded more than a kilogram of synthetic colour from pav bhaji stalls, along with fungus-ridden bread and expired milk pouches. Officials said customers, stall operators and shop owners were informed about the effects of using adulterated food items and warned that stringent action would follow if violations continued.
The latest raids are part of a broader inspection programme that KMC has been conducting across Kolkata’s food establishments. During a week-long drive in September, civic teams inspected 592 establishments, collected samples from 161 locations and discarded 1,224kg of food that violated safety norms.
The September operation covered multiple segments of the city’s food economy, including hotels, clubs, restaurants, markets and bazaars. KMC commissioner Smita Pandey had said the drive was intended to make the food industry more responsible and accountable to residents, while ensuring that inspections extended beyond a single category of establishment.
The inspections highlight the administrative challenge of monitoring a diverse urban food network that includes formal businesses, markets and roadside stalls. In the latest drive, the civic body combined checks on ingredients and stored food with warnings and on-site disposal of items considered unsafe.
For consumers, the findings concern commonly sold food products during the festive season, when demand rises across street stalls, sweet shops and beverage outlets. The civic body has not provided details in the supplied report about laboratory test results, penalties imposed on individual establishments or any illness linked to the items found during the latest inspections.
KMC officials said food-safety drives would continue during the festive period. The stated objectives are to identify unsafe food items, check compliance with food-safety standards and sensitise vendors and shop owners about hygienic practices.
