400-kg spurious khoya seized

Manmeet Singh Gill

Amritsar, November 11

In the ongoing drive to check the sale of spurious and substandard food items, the district health authorities seized over four quintals of spurious khoya from two vehicles at a special naka set up by the department on the Ram Tirath road early this morning.

Assistant Commissioner, Food Safety, Rajinder Pal Singh said at around 5.30 am, they intercepted a three-wheeler and recovered 100 kilograms of khoya from it. He said the driver of the vehicle, Jagtar Singh, a resident of Bhullar village, admitted that the seized khoya was prepared using skimmed milk powder and vanaspati cooking oil.

The team later intercepted an Indica car driven by Visakh Singh, a resident of Bhangwa village in the area, and seized 300 kilograms of khoya from it. “The khoya too was made using skimmed milk powder and vanaspati oil,” said Rajinder Pal Singh.

A Health Department official said the khoya was being transported to the city where it was to be sold to sweet shops. “Instead of preparing khoya from pure milk, spurious khoya is made by mixing cooking oil in milk powder. As compared to the process of making pure khoya from milk, it is a much easier process,” said Rajinder.

The official stated that they had earlier seized nearly 350 kilograms of khoya from two persons last week. “Khoya is used in most sweets. Owing to high demand for sweets, some shopkeepers are using spurious khoya,” he said.

The health team later destroyed the khoya and initiated legal action against the persons transporting it. “We have also collected samples of milk as it is also in great demand due to the festival season,” said Rajinder, adding that people should purchase sweets from their trusted shops only and should report to the Health Department if they find any adulteration in sweets or dairy products.