Thrissur/Palakkad: Food Safety officers seized around 10 tonnes (10,000 kilograms) of adulterated tea powder from Nurani in Palakkad and Mannuthy in Thrissur, on Friday.
Two people, Muhammed Iqbal and Sreedharan of Palakkad, suspected be the involved in the tea adulteration racket were taken into custody from a house located at Pattani Street, Nurani.
They have been selling adulterated tea powder under the brand name of ‘Amritham’ and ‘Mayoori’ across the State, the officials said. Tea samples had artificial colour known to cause cancer, they added.
The officials seized a huge quantity of tea powder stored in a house near the Krishi Bhavan, Mannuthy.
“They illegal operation involved purchase of adulterated tea powder from Tamil Nadu after which it was mixed with the cheaper tea powder available in the local market. They were later packed with stickers of the local brand ‘Mayoori’ and supplied to hotels and roadside eateries in the State at low prices.
The name of an Ooty-based company was mentioned as the manufacturer on the tea packets seized from Mannuthy.
Against the maximum retail price of Rs 220 per kg, the sub-standard tea powder stored in neatly-wrapped packets similar to that of international brands, were being sold at Rs 130. Earlier, the adulterated tea was supplied only to small and medium hotels and road-side eateries, but now large hotels have also started to purchase it, the officials said.
The cost of production of the spurious product was below Rs 50 per kg.
The small and medium hoteliers were attracted to that particular brand because of the cheap price and strong flavour, they added.
Banned colours and food azo dyes such as sunset yellow, tartrazine, carmoisine, brilliant blue and indigo carmine were used to add colour to tea powder while chemical substance such as caramel was used as a taste enhancer.
“Regular use of such tea can cause cancer, infertility, liver cirrhosis and other diseases,” the officials said.
The illegal business is suspected to be thriving in many areas in Kottayam, Pathanamthitta and Malappuram districts.
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