Govt declares war against spurious chilli powder

Vijayawada: Health Minister Dr Kamineni Srinivas said the government would take stringent action against spurious chilli powder manufacturers and traders. He said the spurious chilli powder is mixed with harmful chemicals like red oxide, rudamin B and other chemicals.

Speaking to reporters at the Dr NTR University of Health Sciences here on Friday, the Minister said the government officials conducted raids on various, chilli powder manufacturers, cold storages and shops in 13 districts of the State and seized 6.82 lakh kgs of spurious powder during the last one month.

Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare Samuel Anand displayed the harmful chilli powder packets collected from godowns and traders.

The Minister speaking on the occasion said food safety department had collected and sent ten samples for lab tests, out of which eight samples proved very harmful.

He said chilli powder imported from China is very dangerous and consumers could not differentiate between the original and spurious one.

He said some traders are purchasing harmful materials from Mssrs Cheng Yang bio tech private Limited in Khammam district and producing spurious chilli powder that should not be consumed either by people or animals.

The Minister said the raids were also conducted in Khammam, Warangal, Mahaboobabad and other parts of Telangana in addition to Krishna and Guntur districts of AP.

He regretted that some traders are mixing this spurious chilli powder in pickles also and warned stringent action would be taken on manufacturers of harmful spurious chilli powder.