In yet another crackdown on adulterated food, the Hyderabad Task Force Police arrested 9 people after they raided several ice cream parlours and sweet shops in the city on Thursday.
The officers raided ice cream parlours and sweet shops in several places of Old City like Langer Houz and Golconda, besides areas of Secunderabad like Lalaguda and Marredpally.
"They were adulterating ice creams by mixing non-ISI certified milk powder, expired synthetic colours, electrolysis chemical powders and vanaspati. Sweets, especially petha, was being adulterated by mixing white wash cement, phitkari, sodium hydro sulphide and artificial food colours. Tomato, chilli sauces and vinegar are being manufactured illegally without licence,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Task Force, B Limba Reddy told the Times of India.
The officials arrested the owners of the establishments which were found preparing the adulterated food.
This follows a week of raids by the police to keep a check on food safety and public health in the city.
On Wednesday, the police had arrested six people for alleged adulteration of food, after raiding ice cream shops and their manufacturing units, PTI reported.
The shops were reportedly functioning without obtaining a proper licence and permission from authorities. The police also claimed that the shops were unauthorised artificial chemical food colours.
On Tuesday, the police arrested 15 people, for allegedly being part of a racket that was involved in injecting Oxytocin into buffaloes, for higher milk production.
The police conducted raids across the city on multiple dairy farms, and took the accused into custody.
In a statement, the police said, "With the practice of injecting Oxytocin twice a day, the drug remains in the milk and results in serious issues like breast cancer, prostate cancer and impotency in men. This practice of adulteration will also result in severe medical issues in adolescents."
Editor's note: The previous image of 'Scoops' was wrongly used after an error by a police officer from Hyderabad. The image has been changed. TNM regrets the error.