Srinagar, Jun 3:  The Food Safety Department has said market surveillance for vegetable freshness and safety was a regular exercise that had been intensified over the past month. 

It rebutted the claims made in a viral video where vendors are allegedly picking up discarded and rotten vegetables for sale.

A video where some people are seen picking up vegetable from the ground, while cattle are seen consuming discarded stock behind them has been widely circulated over social media. 

The video claims that the people who are picking up vegetables are vendors, and foraging through garbage dump at Parimpora Vegetable Mandi in Srinagar. 

The person who has uploaded the video claims that the people are vendors selling vegetables in autos, and are picking the discarded and rotten stock, laced with animal and human excreta.

However, when the team from Food Safety Department inspected the claims, they found that the video was “misleading”. 

Assistant Commissioner Food Safety, YameenulNabi, told  that the cattle were present at the garbage dump managed by Srinagar Municipal Corporation. 

The vegetables yard is separated by a road and sometime the vegetables are loaded on the road early mornings. 

“The vegetables are not picked up from garbage. This claim is totally baseless and misleading,” he said.

Rotten and rotting vegetables pose health risks and the risk of toxicity in humans. These can contain mycotoxins than can cause long-term organ damage. 

In addition, these items can contain harmful bacteria such as E coli and Salmonella.

The department said that the market check of vegetables was a regular exercise. 

“In fact over the past two months, the drive has been intensified to check for a number of parameters,” Yameen said. 

He said vegetables and fruits are been examined and sampled for testing. 

“We are checking for artificial ripening, artificial colouring, chemicals for preservation and pesticide content. These things are more concerning as most of the consumers will find it difficult to determine their presence in foods they consume,” he said.

Yasmeen said over the past two months, samples of vegetables had been picked from market and were already undergoing tests at reputed national labs. 

The tests reports, he said, will form the basis of future course of action on the vegetable market.

J&K has seen a number of prohibition notices issued in the past, after food items were found laced with chemicals detrimental to human health. 

These include ready-to-eat food items, raw foods like paneer and milk. 

In addition, carbides were also found as part of fruit ripening process in Kashmir.