Officials of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation’s health and food squad and district administration seize and destroy stale food on the Bali yatra ground. Pictures by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Nov. 12: Health and food officials of the district administration and the Cuttack Municipal Corporation today seized more than four quintals of stale food and destroyed it during a raid on vendors selling food unfit for consumption during the ongoing Bali yatra fair.

Officials of the health and food squad of the corporation, food inspectors and other sanitary staff conducted the raid at various kiosks selling chat, dahibara, thunkapuri and foodstuff.

“It is surprising that apart from the small vendors, reputed companies had also stocked overnight cooked food which might have been served to the visitors today,” said city health officer S. Gadanayak.

Gadanayak said the main aim was to prevent any untoward incident during the fair that draws lakhs of visitors.

A similar raid was conducted on the second day of the fair and around 1.5 quintals of stale food was destroyed yesterday.

Apart from prepared food, various other stuff such as spices and sauce without labels and non-reputed brands are also being seized during the raid that is conducted twice a day.

Efforts are on to ensure a total ban on polythene at Bali yatra.

The squads today seized around 8kg of polythene and disposable plastic glasses.

The civic body and the district administration had said they would take strict action against traders if they used polythene during Bali yatra.

Around six kiosks, selling jute and paper bags as alternatives to polythene, have also been set up at the Bali yatra ground.

“Many vendors serve the cooked food the next day which will certainly affect the people’s health. It is a regular drive to ensure that no stale food is served,” said district food inspector Pradipta Pradhan.

Pradhan further said the vendors had been asked to keep dustbins and baskets to maintain proper sanitation. All stale food, seized today, was dumped as per the guidelines, he said.

Over 1,300 kiosks selling food, handicrafts and other household articles have come up at Bali yatra, which got off to a splendid start on November 10.

Over three to four lakh people are thronging the annual fair and it is expected that the number would cross five lakh on Sunday. Over 40 platoons of police force have been deployed to maintain law and order.