According to sources currently raids across the country have unearthed hundreds of kg of adulterated sweets or their ingredients, but that's just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Meanwhile in Meerut, 500 kg of adulterated milk cake and 300 kg of poisoned petha were seized on Monday while around 550 kg of adulterated mawa was seized in Gonda. The mawa was being transported in a bus to avoid detection. In Allahabad, around 900 kg of rotten peas and 100 kg of contaminated ice cream were seized.
In Jalgaon, Maharashtra, around 9,900 kg of spurious sweets were confiscated. A tip-off led the state food department to a godown where heaps of sweets made from substandard ingredients were ready for circulation. The sweets factories use formalin, a chemical used to preserve corpses.
Furthermore consuming formalin-mixed products can damage the kidneys and
liver, cause asthma attacks and even cause cancer. Pregnant women are most
vulnerable to the chemical and can end up giving birth to physically challenged
babies. Accordingly the Union Health Minister said the rules against
adulteration were strict, but it was up to the state governments to take
action.
