Tea to ice-creams: Food adulteration on the rise in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: Adulteration of essential commodities has come to haunt both residents and regulatory authorities. While GHMC and police officials have carried out a slew of crackdowns in recent times and even seized large quantities of adulterated products, they say it’s only the tip of the iceberg.
According to them, the adulterated version of items like tea, coffee, sugar, milk, honey, spices, oils, ice creams and food grains have flooded local markets and are being sold brazenly.A couple of weeks ago, fake Brooke Bond ‘Red Label’ tea powder and spurious packets of Everest spices were seized from Nagaram. During the raids authorities found that this was being supplied to supermarkets and shops by counterfeiting the brand’s names.

Prior to that on February 28, the task force and city police seized 700kg of adulterated ginger and garlic paste from a manufacturing unit in Rajendranagar. The special operation teams found that chemicals, sodium benzoate, colour powder and citric acid were being used in making large quantities of ginger and garlic paste.
Incidentally, National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) puts Hyderabad on top in food adulteration, among 19 Indian cities, with 246 cases being reported in 2022.

“GHMC and food safety officials must intensify their raids against food products and check the quality. People also need to be aware of these issues,” said Shiva Kiran, vice-president, United Federation of RWAs.
Checks intensified
“During our inspections, we found that a lot of colours are being added to chilli powder, spices etc while calcium carbide is being used for ripening of mangoes.
There are plenty of bad quality oils as well. Most of the adulterated foods are either substandard or unsafe,” said E Sudershan Reddy, designated food official, GHMC.
“If traders are found selling or supplying substandard food, we are slapping them with a penalty of up to Rs 5 lakh,” he added.
Colourants in fast food
In an alarming trend, several fast food centres in the city have been found adding artificial colours along with use of substandard oil.