VERNA: The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has seized a massive 1,780 kg consignment of boneless raw chicken from Agarwal Cold Storage in Verna after detecting multiple labelling violations during an inspection on Tuesday. The entire seized stock will be destroyed, FDA officials confirmed.
During the inspection, officials reportedly found that the chicken packages lacked mandatory details, including manufacturing dates, expiry dates, FSSAI licence numbers and information about the company responsible for transporting the stock.
According to FDA officials, the raid was conducted following a complaint and an investigation into the transportation of chicken consignments into Goa.
The department had earlier intercepted a chicken consignment arriving by train at Margao railway station. Samples from that consignment were collected and sent for laboratory testing, with the results still awaited.
An FDA official said that after the department began checking chicken consignments arriving by train, those involved in the trade allegedly shifted to transporting the stock by road to avoid scrutiny. Acting on information about the movement of such consignments, the FDA alerted senior officials and conducted the raid at the Verna cold storage facility.
Officials also raised concerns that some of the seized chicken stock could have been stored since July, creating doubts about its freshness and suitability for human consumption.
The FDA has decided to destroy the entire seized quantity to prevent it from entering the food supply chain.
The action is part of the department’s ongoing efforts to monitor questionable meat consignments entering Goa and protect consumers from potentially unsafe food products.
Meanwhile, laboratory reports of samples collected from the earlier consignment intercepted at Margao railway station are still awaited.
