Cashew nut shops at Calangute beach promenade raided by FDA .
Calangute: Following complaints of stale and rancid cashew nuts being sold to tourists by cashew nut shops at the Calangute beach promenade, officials from the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) conducted a raid on Friday and seized cashew nuts worth around Rs one lakh.
“With the new tourist season starting, we want to ensure that the cashew nuts which tourists as well as locals buy are of a good quality. Around five-six shops were checked today. We found some packets with sub-standard cashew nuts which we have taken for tests. We had conducted a similar check last year and filed around 15 cases. We have found some improvement since then,” FDA officials said.
“The raids will continue every two weeks. We have appealed to the shops that they should only sell good quality cashew nuts because it’s about the image of Goa state. With Goan cashew nuts getting the GI tag, the cashew nut packets will soon be available with the GI label. We will be conducting checks to see that only Goan cashew nuts have the GI label. Other cashew nuts will not have the label. If the quality of cashew nuts is good, then good tourists will come,” the officials said.
