Hyderabad, Apr 24 (PTI) The H-FAST busted a tea powder adulteration racket here and arrested 10 people, police said.
The investigation revealed that some of the accused were allegedly mixing synthetic food colours, jaggery juice, and used and expired tea powder to enhance appearance and increase profit.
Based on credible information about large-scale adulteration of tea powder, the Hyderabad Food Adulteration Surveillance Team conducted searches at 15 locations across the city recently, targeting manufacturing units involved in the preparation and supply of adulterated tea powder.
In the operation, 10 persons were arrested for their alleged involvement in the manufacturing and distribution of adulterated tea powder, DCP (Commissioner’s Task Force) Gaikwad Vaibhav Raghunath said in a release issued on Thursday.
A total of 3,000 kg of adulterated tea powder, 1,500 kg of expired tea powder, artificial colours used for adulteration, and 100 kg of jaggery were seized.
The accused procured low-quality tea powder from vendors in Kolkata, Kerala, and Assam, and adulterated it using synthetic food colours and dyes, the release said.
The accused admitted to mixing these harmful synthetic chemicals with inferior-quality tea powder and repackaging the adulterated product under different brand names, it said.
Action is being taken under the Food Safety and Standards Act and relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the release added. PTI VVK SSK
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