Bhubaneswar civic body seizes stale paneer ahead of Rakhi

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday seized nearly 100 kg of stale paneer from shops and hotels as part of a food safety drive ahead of Rakhi Purnima. The civic body's food safety wing acted on complaints about substandard paneer being sold in the city. Food safety officer Satyajit Patel said suspected contamination was found at paneer kiosks and hotels dealing in sweets and dairy items. Cases were instituted under the Food Safety Act and improvement notices were served on shops. Over two days, around two quintals of paneer were seized from multiple locations and destroyed as unfit for consumption, officials said. Two samples were sent for laboratory testing, and 12 shops were fined a total of Rs 12,000.