Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Food Adulteration Surveillance Team (H-FAST) conducted raids across the city, seizing 3,000 kg of adulterated tea powder and 1,500 kg of expired tea powder, among others.
The raids were conducted at 15 manufacturing units allegedly involved in making and supplying fake tea powder to roadside tea vendors and prominent restaurants selling tea.
Ten people were arrested. They have been identified as Paresh Rajan from Kompally, Sanju alias Pati and Rajesh from Petlaburj, Satish from Musheerabad, Naveen from Bowenpally, Narsimha from Asifnagar, Chunnilal Chaudhary from Rajendranagar, Narsimulu from Borabanda, Ravinder from Bidar and Waseem from Mallepally.
Police also seized artificial colours used for adulteration and about 100 kg of jaggery.
Interrogation revealed they procured low-quality tea powder from vendors in Kolkata, Kerala and Assam, and adulterated it using synthetic food colours. The powder was then repackaged under different brand names and sold as genuine tea powder.
Cases have been registered under the Food Safety and Standards Act and relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
This post was last modified on April 23, 2026 8:43 pm