''Nutritious food'' for Anganwadis ''unfit for humans''

Fatehabad, Aug 31 (UNI) Samples of the 'Panjiri', a traditional nutritious diet of sweet roasted flour being supplied to children and pregnant women in the Anganwadis here under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) have been found ''gritty, rancid and putrefied'' and unfit for human consumption.

The samples taken from the ICDS stores a few days back had been sent to Analyst Laboratory, Chandigarh after it was revealed that the department had stacked the bags of the 'panjiri' in a toilet, according to health department sources.

The bags were found infected with fungus, as those were stacked on moist floor. Though the health authorities took the samples of the 'panjiri', the entire stock was dispatched to the anganwadi centers, the sources said.

According to the reports of the public analyst, the samples of the 'panjiri' have been found unfit for human consumption. The 'panjiri' has been found gritty with 0.60 percent sand particles in it. The manufacturers had used rancid oil and the samples were found to be putrefied, it said.

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