By Mahesh Buddi TNN | Updated: Jul 08, 2017, 12.14 PM IST
HYDERABAD: Ever wondered why the chilli or turmeric powders you put in your curry fail to satiate your taste buds? Or did you feel that the gingergarlic paste ruined your favourite chicken recipe?
If you had such experiences, probably the products in your kitchen are adulterated.
From milk to cooking oil, ice-cream to honey , those behind adulteration are making crores. Alarmed at the growing menace, chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao has asked enforcement officials to crack down on the various adulteration gangs.
When task force sleuths of the Hyderabad commissionerate raided a godown in Afzal Sagar, Habeeb Nagar, on June 17, a pungent smell greeted them. Police saw sacks of rotten ginger and garlic piled upon one another in the facility and a grinding machine churning the rotten material into `ginger-garlic paste'.
Owner of the facility , 34-year-old Abdul Majid, had also added titanium dioxide and lemon yellow synthetic colour to the mixture to get the desired flavour and look.
Majid and many others like him ignore the fact that International Agency for Research on Cancer recently classified titanium dioxide as a carcinogen.
“Though the chemical may cause cancer, those behind adulteration use it,“ said BLimba Reddy , task force DCP .
Since January 1, 2017, the cops of three city police commissionerates have busted 62 food adulteration gangs and arrested 104 people.
The crackdown revealed that many products and items used daily to prepare food were adulterated.
While milk is being adulterated with inferior quality powder and water, there are crooks like Mallesh Yadav, owner of `Banti and Bablu' dairy farm in Manchal, who added Urea to the concoction of milk powder and water to increase fat content. Rachakonda police arrested Mallesh and his associates in May , this year.
Other food items found adulterated were ice-cream, tomato, chilli and soy sauce, vinegar, petha sweet, cooking oil, turmeric, coriander, curry leaf, cumin powder, pepper, poppy seeds, shajeera, cardamom, soft drinks, honey and besan.
A year ago, south zone police arrested Rajesh Gupta and 13 others, including 11 spice traders from Begum Bazar, for adulteration of poppy seeds, black pepper, cumin, cardamom and shajeera using synthetic gum, flour, papaya seeds, artificial colours, iron oxide, stone powder, glucose, semolina, wall paints, sodium hydrosulphite, broomstick dust and white lubricant oil.
Task force police have also arrested a few gangs preparing cooking oil using animal fat and supplying it to street food vendors. On Wednesday , a high-level committee comprising police, GHMC, civil supplies, medical and health department officials met at the DGP's office in Lakdikapul to discuss the action plan to eradicate adulteration. “The committee has has deci ded to create 16 special task force teams to check adulteration in the state. Local police officers will also be sensitised to ensure that food adulteration, sale of spurious seeds, fertilisers and pesticides come to an end. We have also decided to examine the feasibility of invoking PD Act against repeat offenders. The telephone numbers of the task force incharge and the centralised compliant cell will be notified to the public shortly , so that complaints could be made,“ DGP Anurag Sharma said.
Offenders make five times the profit on investment
To produce adulterated chilli, coriander and turmeric powders, offenders use saw dust and artificial colours. “The offenders sell the adulterated chilli, turmeric and coriander powders under popular brand names. They have no licence, hence, do not pay any tax. On an average, they make five times the profit on investment,“ South Zone DCP V Satyanarayana said.
Those making adulterated cooking oil from animal waste sell 15-litre tins for about Rs 500. “In the cooking oil adulteration business, there is no expenditure for the accused other than transportation.So, profit is at least 10 times more than the investment,“ the DCP said.
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