Ignoring political pressure, State Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Uttam Khobragade has filed two complaints before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Mazgaon Court, against Cadbury India Ltd (CIL) as well as its distributors for allegedly selling worm-infested chocolates.Khobragade said as per the procedure laid down under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, his office has filed two separate complaints against the Cadburys India and its distributors a week ago for selling worm-infested chocolates.‘‘Under the act, we can’t register a criminal case against the erring organisation. We have to register a complaint case before the Metropolitan Magistrate. After we filed the complaint, the court has issued summons to the company as well as its distributors on February 13, 2004,’’ Joint Commissioner N. D. Patil said.Patil said the complaint has been filed under section 7(1) of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954. The section provides that no person should himself or on his behalf manufacture, sale or store or distribute adulterated food.When a section of consumers submitted the chocolates to the FDA office, the same were sent to an analytical laboratory, Patil said. Following the analysis, it was found that the product contained ‘wee-vil’, small beetle with a hard shell. ‘‘In our complaint, we have submitted the submissions made by the Cadburys as well as the analytical report,’’ Patil said.Soon after the FDA office was flooded with complaints, Khobragade had swung into action. Then he had personally visited certain plants of the Cadburys so see for himself the state of affairs of the manufacturing process. While Khobragade was all set to initiate proceedings against the Cadburys, Minister for Food and Drug Administration Anil Deshmukh had given a clean chit to the Cadburys, saying all was well.Significantly, when the issue was raised in the legislative council, Deshmukh said that the FDA collected a record number of 115 samples of dairy milk chocolates during September—October 2003 and sent them for analysis. ‘‘In view of specific adverse report, the FDA has filed case,’’ Deshmukh said.On the judicial proceedings, CIL managing director Bharat Puri said his organisation is in continuous dialogue with the FDA after the recent reports in the media. ‘‘Our factories continue to operate as normal. We wish to reiterate that all Cadbury factories and manufacturing practices are of the highest standards,’’ Puri said.Puri claimed that CIL follows the internationally accepted HACCP (Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points) programme, which is the most comprehensive food safety system which enables us to maintain stringent standards of hygiene, safety and quality. Cadbury remains committed to observing the law of the land and therefore will extend all cooperation for any specific queries raised by any of the authorities, he added.
