The Silicon Review ^Asia

Food adulteration has become a growing fiasco. In spite of several health hazards associated with selling fake food products or adulterating them with cheaper substance, many manufacturers are still doing this for the sake of profit. There are food safety departments working to curb such menace and corruption, however, there doesn’t seem any end to such fraudulent activities any soon.

The food safety department of Delhi found over 1,060 kilograms of fake ghee (clarified butter) during a recent raid. The raid took place in Shradhanand Market, near Lahori Gate. Food Safety Officers (FSOs) seized as many as 60 cartons which contained 18 one kg plastic jars of counterfeit ghee. The ghee was being sold under the brand name of Gowardhan, and the company complained about the fraud after which the raid was held.

“As per the information, a team of FSOs visited the location, conducted an inspection, collected samples of the ghee were taken and sent them to NABL Delhi Government Food Lab for testing”, said Ranjit Singh, appointed officer, food safety department, Delhi. The result of the testing confirmed that it wasn’t pure ghee. The colour was not consistent as expected of pure ghee. It also didn’t have the particular smell that ghee has. The most shocking was that ghee hadn’t completely melted, even at a high temperature.

All the cartons have been confiscated from Rajdhani Sales Corporation, the distributor of Gowardhan ghee who has been found to be guilty of selling fake ghee.