Raids at Anakapalle jaggery market

Visakhapatnam: Tense moments prevailed at the NTR market yard in Anakapalle when teams from the Food Safety department swooped down on the market on Monday to collect samples of jaggery.

Based on information that the jaggery producers and dealers were indulging in adulteration, about 12 teams under the direction of Food Safety Commissioner Samuel Anand Kumar arrived at the market. The jaggery farmers and dealers tried to prevent the officers from collecting the samples and staged a dharna. The officers called the police to reduce the tension and enable the officials to collect the samples.

Assistant Food Safety Officer P Haumantha Rao said the jaggery producers were reportedly using sulphur dioxide as bleach to make the jaggery lumps look whiter. “Sulphur dioxide can be used as bleach, but the prescribed norm is 70 ppm. As per the reports we received, the producers were using sulphur dioxide ranging from 250 to 500 ppm, which is abnormal and harmful for human consumption,”he said .

Anakapalle is the hub for jaggery production in the State and is exported to other States to the tune of Rs 120 crore. In NTR Market Yard alone there are about 37 major producers and dealers and according to the Food Safety officers about 12 samples have been collected and sent to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) laboratory in Hyderabad, in the Monday’s raid.