Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has stepped up vigil as the price of pulses continues to rule high.
An FSSAI official said here on Wednesday that they had so far not come across any instance of costly food inputs being substituted though test on samples collected were on. “We have to wait and see if food vendors resort to new techniques,” he said.
An official of the State Civil Supplies Department hinted at the possibility of food vendors resorting to the use of lower grade inputs as produces like urad dal could not be substituted by anything else for making items like vada.
If lower quality inputs are used the nutritional content may vary, he said.
A wholesaler here said that the first quality urad dal sold for Rs. 170 a kg in the retail market while the second quality sold for Rs. 160 a kg. Smaller grains mark the second quality urad dal.
A food vendor in the city, who plies a pushcart selling vadas and bonda, said that uzhunnu vada price was hiked by a rupee to Rs. 6 following the price rise.
He said that a kg of urad dal yielded around 40 vadas and the price-rise had put margins under pressure.
However, he said that the rise in the price of pulses had been quite balanced by the fall in the price of cooking gas and big onions.
The price of a commercial LPG cylinder had now come down to Rs. 1,100 from the previous cost of Rs. 1,900.
Similarly, the price of big onions had come down to about Rs. 40 a kg from about Rs. 65 a kg during previous weeks.
Meanwhile, pulse arrivals continued to be low in the Ernakulam market.
The price of green gram was about Rs. 100 a kg. Canadian peas dal, used for making the popular snack parippu vada was selling at Rs. 31.75 kg though the price of the common curry dal (masoor dal) ruled at Rs. 70 a kg for the best quality.
