FDA asks Maganlal Chikki to suspend production, sale

The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has slapped a notice on Lonavla-based chikki manufacturer Maganlal Chikki, asking it to stop the production for alleged violation of Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (FSSA) at its plants.

Lonavla in Pune district is a hub of production of chikki, a popular confection mainly made from groundnut.

An FDA official said Thursday that raids at Maganlal Chikki's plants found that the company was not complying with food safety norms.

"We found the company neither has its own laboratory to test the food items nor was it getting the products tested at NABL, a lab approved by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)," said FDA joint commissioner Suresh Deshmukh.

The company also did not have an expert person for supervising the production, he claimed.

"It was also found that conditions at the plant were unhygienic, so we served them a notice to stop the production and sale of food items," he said.

Until the company complies with the norms it will not be able to restart the production, he said.

When contacted, owner of Maganlal Chikki, Ashok Agarwal, said the notice was of "technical nature" and had nothing to do with the quality of its food products.

"We have already started complying with all the norms and we are sure the production will restart soon," he said.