Hyderabad: As part of a crackdown on food adulteration, the Hyderabad Food Adulteration Surveillance Team (H-FAST) of the Hyderabad police raided 130 establishments across the city. Police have sent samples collected from 39 ghee manufacturing units for advanced laboratory testing, with a significant number found to be adulterated.During raids on 39 ghee manufacturing units and 91 retail outlets over the past few weeks, H-FAST teams seized about 36 tonnes of adulterated ghee and raw materials. The seized items included 25.5 tonnes of adulterated ghee, 8.7 tonnes of raw milk cream, 1,200 litres of palm oil, 600 litres of vanaspati (vegetable oil), artificial ghee flavouring and 30kg of starch.According to Hyderabad police commissioner VC Sajjanar, genuine ghee should contain 99.5% milk fat. However, manufacturers of adulterated ghee use two main methods to produce the product.“They replaced milk fat with palm oil, added vanaspati and artificial flavouring, or used skimmed milk powder with zero fat content, mixed with palm oil, vanaspati, starch and flavouring to produce adulterated ghee with no actual milk content,” the commissioner said.According to Sajjanar, the level of adulteration ranged from 10% to 40%, and the product was being sold in Telangana and neighbouring states. The raw materials were sourced from Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.Task Force DCP Vaibhav Gaikwad said routine checks using portable testing kits did not reveal the adulteration because manufacturers were mixing palm oil and vanaspati in the right proportions, along with artificial flavouring, to pass the tests and make the adulterated ghee appear genuine.“We have sent samples from all 39 ghee manufacturing units to a city-based NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories) approved laboratory for advanced testing. So far, we have received 21 results, of which 19 samples were found to be adulterated. We have also noticed that ghee manufacturers and retailers are often selling the product without mandatory labelling, such as FSSAI licence numbers, batch details or expiry dates. We will book cases under the relevant sections of the BNS against all errant manufacturers,” the DCP said.The public was advised to buy dairy products only from licensed vendors and report suspicious activity to the police through 112 or the H-FAST helpline at 8712661212.
