Continuing the crackdown on units allegedly engaged in producing spurious jaggery in Bhadravathi taluk, officials of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and the Department of Health and Family Welfare raided a jaggery-producing unit in Tashkent Nagar village on Thursday.
The raid was conducted following complaints of violation of rules at the unit. B.S. Shankarappa, district surveillance officer, told The Hindu that there were complaints that stale sugar available for cheap prices was being used to produce jaggery at the unit. During the raid, 25 kg of stale sugar was seized from the unit.
Many units add stale sugar and stale jaggery to sugarcane juice to produce fresh jaggery. This practice amounts to adulteration of food, and consumption of jaggery produced in this manner is harmful to humans, he said.
Some jaggery-producing units, locally known as alemane, add sulphur phosphate fertilisers and calcium hydroxide to boiled sugarcane juice to give a bright yellowish colour to the jaggery. Three chemical packets suspected to be calcium hydroxide and sulphur phosphate were also seized from the unit. The packets will be sent to a laboratory for analysis, Mr. Shankarappa said.
Waste as fuel
He said that during the raid, it was found that used tyre and plastic waste were used as fuel for boiling sugarcane juice, in place of the costlier option of firewood. The tyre and plastic waste are purchased from junk dealers in urban areas.
According to Mr. Shankarappa, under the laws the burning of tyre and plastic waste that causes air pollution is banned. In addition to this, consumption of food produced in this manner is detrimental to human health, he said.
Cases under various sections of the Food Safety and Standards Act have been booked against the owner of the unit. Similar raids were conducted on jaggery-producing units in Aralihalli, Timlapura, Tiplapura and Veerapura villages in Bhadravathi taluk on October 13.
