India, Oct. 4 -- As the festive season begins, the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on August 11 launched a statewide campaign to ensure the safety and quality of food items sold during the celebrations.

According to FDA Minister Narhari Zirwal, the department has already inspected 1,594 sweet shops across the state and collected 2,369 food samples for laboratory testing. These samples include popular festive foods such as milk, khoya, ghee, edible oils, sweets, dry fruits, and chocolates, they said in a statement released on Saturday.

Out of these samples, reports of 554 food samples have been received, of which 513 samples were found safe, while 26 were found substandard and 4 had labelling defects, and 11 were declared ...