AMC does a pre-Diwali check on mithaai shops

The health department of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation is gearing up to check the quality of the ingredients used in preparing sweets ahead of Diwali at various shops in the city.

While raids are being conducted across the city, the health department has also procured 232 samples of various such ingredients during September.

In October, the officials have so far taken around 49 samples of milk and milk products for testing. Chief medical officer in the AMC SP Kulkarni said they have taken samples of sweets, milk, milk products and bakery products.  "We have taken samples from areas like Naroda and Narol. We did not find anything objectionable during the on the spot checking. The samples are also being examined in a laboratory," said Kulkarni.

  Of the total samples, around 72 were of milk and milk products. Official also took samples of chocolates, mawa, ghee, biscuits and some farsans.

Sources said many sweet shop owners use poor quality milk, milk powder and edible oil in mawa.

"These low quality products are not harmful and traders use it to bring down the cost of production. This in turn results in higher profit margins," said the source.

The source, however, also added that though these products are not harmful to the health, rules prescribe that the ingredients used in products like mawa be of certain standard quality.

The source said that the adulterated mawa is sold at Rs95 per kg, while pure mawa is priced at Rs140 per kg. "Sweets made from mawa should be used within a week and those that are made of cashew nuts should be consumed within a fortnight," said Jashawant Patel of Jaihind Sweets.

He said the sweet shop owners will have to roast the mawa at high temperature given the humid atmosphere.  He said that as the state ranks high in milk production, there is very little chance that mawa that we get here is adulterated.

Kulkarni said that the consumption of adulterated sweet can cause stomach ache, vomiting and diarrhoea.