Sambalpur/Balasore: Two positive cases of formalin presence were detected in the fish market of Sambalpur town on Thursday, while the fisheries department did not find traces of the preservative in samples collected from markets in Balasore district.
"We have detected two cases the presence of water solution of formaldehyde in the local fish from Govindtola fish market in Sambalpur. We will sent it to the Bhubaneswar testing lab," fisheries deputy director Pabitra Kumar Behera said.
A team of officials from the Sambalpur Municipal Corporation, fisheries and the food departments has been conducting raids on fish markets for the past two days. They have collected fish samples from the sellers.
"Interestingly, we found formalin in the local fish. The concerned traders clarified that it was because he had kept the fishes along with those procured from Andhra in the same container," the civic body's enforcement officer Subhankar Mohanty.
The squad conducted raids on markets at Ainthapali, Kamali Bazaar, Zila School Chowk and Govindtola.
"There is no demand of fish dishes in hotels and restaurants," said a hotel owner in Sambalpur town, G. Panda.
On the other hand, Balasore district fisheries officer Surendra Kumar Ghadai said 16 samples had been collected in the past four days and tested on the spot. There was no trace of formalin in any of the samples. Of the 16 samples, 10 were from freshwater and the remaining were marine species.
"The checks were carried out at Balaramgadi, markets in the town and the trucks on the national highway from the Bhadrak border to Lakshmannath road," said Ghadai.
"The raids will be stepped up and extended to all blocks. The sample check will be made by teams consisting of food safety officer and police personnel across the district," he said.
Fish consumption in Balasore, a coastal district, is comparatively very high. The district consumes nearly 32,000MT freshwater fishes annually and nearly 2,000MT comes from Andhra. The import goes up when fishing is banned between mid-April to June.
