Beware of Adulterated Sweets
Beware of Adulterated Sweets
Diwali is time for sweets, even the poorest of India’s poor make or purchase sweets. Little do these people realize that the sweets or the products they purchase to make sweets might be adulterated and poisonous. The past few days preceding Diwali Patna has witnessed raids by the Prevention of Food Adulteration and Health Department officials to seize and destroy adulterated sweets. Tons and tons of adulterated Milk, Khoya and Paneer, the main ingredients in making sweets have been seized and destroyed.
This is just a tip of the iceberg, the actual magnitude of the food adulteration racket in India is not known. True enough there are efforts by some government official with limited resources to stop food adulteration. What should have been an all out effort by the Government of India on an war footing to stop its citizens from being poisoned, has been left to a few.
There have been no statements to this effect from the Prime Minister or Chief Minister of State or any of his senior colleagues to this effect. It appears that food adulteration is not on their agenda, they have perhaps other important things on their mind. It appears that an Indian citizen getting poisoned has zero priority.
Some countries have enforced Capital punishment for food adulteration. One does not know what ultimately happens to those who are unlucky enough to be caught in India. Under The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 there is a punishment of six months and fine of Rs.1,000 for adulteration cases which do not result in death or grievous disability. The act simply does not take into consideration the long lasting effects of food poisoning, what happens if someone is infected with Cancer, and it is detected after say six months, and the cause is not known.
There are severe health side effects of adulterated sweets. If there is urea mixed milk, caustic soda, ararot, artificial sweetening chemicals, non approved colored sweets (like heavy metals incorporated malachite green etc), unhygienic sweet making conditions, it may lead to acute gastritis, serious diarrhea, dysentery, dehydration, hepatitis, kidney inflammation, allergic eruptions, asthmatic attack, irritability, insomnia etc etc….
We have to be extremely careful before consuming these kind of sweets this diwali.
Diwali is time for sweets, even the poorest of India’s poor make or purchase sweets. Little do these people realize that the sweets or the products they purchase to make sweets might be adulterated and poisonous. The past few days preceding Diwali Patna has witnessed raids by the Prevention of Food Adulteration and Health Department officials to seize and destroy adulterated sweets. Tons and tons of adulterated Milk, Khoya and Paneer, the main ingredients in making sweets have been seized and destroyed.
This is just a tip of the iceberg, the actual magnitude of the food adulteration racket in India is not known. True enough there are efforts by some government official with limited resources to stop food adulteration. What should have been an all out effort by the Government of India on an war footing to stop its citizens from being poisoned, has been left to a few.
There have been no statements to this effect from the Prime Minister or Chief Minister of State or any of his senior colleagues to this effect. It appears that food adulteration is not on their agenda, they have perhaps other important things on their mind. It appears that an Indian citizen getting poisoned has zero priority.
Some countries have enforced Capital punishment for food adulteration. One does not know what ultimately happens to those who are unlucky enough to be caught in India. Under The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 there is a punishment of six months and fine of Rs.1,000 for adulteration cases which do not result in death or grievous disability. The act simply does not take into consideration the long lasting effects of food poisoning, what happens if someone is infected with Cancer, and it is detected after say six months, and the cause is not known.
There are severe health side effects of adulterated sweets. If there is urea mixed milk, caustic soda, ararot, artificial sweetening chemicals, non approved colored sweets (like heavy metals incorporated malachite green etc), unhygienic sweet making conditions, it may lead to acute gastritis, serious diarrhea, dysentery, dehydration, hepatitis, kidney inflammation, allergic eruptions, asthmatic attack, irritability, insomnia etc etc….
We have to be extremely careful before consuming these kind of sweets this diwali.
posted by Dr Diwakar Tejaswi at 10:49 PM
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