Hyderabad: In a major bust, Hyderabad Food Adulteration Surveillance Team (H-FAST) officials seized 825 kg of adulterated paneer from 45 food outlets and eight manufacturing units on Wednesday, June 17.
Officials said that cheese analogue products made from vegetable fats and non-milk ingredients are being sold as paneer, malai paneer, or milk paneer without proper declaration to deceive customers.
Conducting a press meet, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Commissioner’s Task Force, Vaibhav Gaikwad Raghunath said that the cheese analogue products were being procured from states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh, being marketed under misleading labels like ‘low fat paneer’, ‘medium fat paneer’, or ‘fresh paneer’, and being sold without manufacturing details, batch number, or expiry date.
He added that the products carry disclaimers like “not responsible for loose sale” and “contains no dairy fat”, but are being repacked and sold as ‘premium paneer’ by retail outlets.
The raids also revealed adulteration practices like adding starch, excess water, non-milk fats, poor-quality or synthetic milk, and non-food-grade substances to make the ‘fake paneer’.
Police have warned that these practices pose serious health risks, including food poisoning and allergic reactions, and anyone found violating food safety guidelines will be liable for strict legal action.
People have been asked to purchase paneer only from licensed vendors, to check labels and expiry dates, avoid loose/unlabelled products, and report violations.
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