Gurgaon: Nearly 7,600kg of synthetic paneer was seized during overnight raids at three units along Gurgaon canal in Gondola village and one in Nai.A joint enforcement task force comprising Punahana SDM, duty magistrate (tehsildar) and DSP, along with teams from the Haryana State Pollution Control Board and the Food and Drug Administration, Nuh, carried out the raids from 9 pm on Sept 10 till 5 am on Friday.Over the eight-hour operation, enforcement teams also seized a range of hazardous chemicals and non-food raw substances, including milk powder, industrial-grade bleaching agents, soybean, fabric whitener, refined palm oil and white poster colour, which were allegedly used in the production of the adulterated paneer meant to be supplied across Delhi and NCR cities.On Sept 10, a TOI report, ‘Analogue alarm: How synthetic paneer takes a Gondola ride to your plate,’ had flagged how clandestine manufacturing hubs in the Gondola belt were producing large batches of synthetic or analogue paneer using skimmed milk mixed with palm oil, vegetable fats and soya paste.It revealed that the rising demand for cheap paneer had pushed manufacturing units beyond a single cluster in Gondola village in Punahana block to Katpuri, Bara Bazidpur in Pinangwan, Raniyala and Bodi Kothi in Ferozepur Jhirka, and Sheikhpur in Nagina, among other places. The units were daily dispatching synthetic paneer in bulk across mandis, catering kitchens, banquet halls and eateries to be served as tikkas, patties and curries across Delhi-NCR.
On Friday, Nuh district commissioner Akhil Pilani told TOI the raids would continue, adding that the state maintained a zero-tolerance policy against the adulteration or sale of analogue paneer and other products. “Teams of both food safety and pollution control board will continue to raid such illegal manufacturing units,” he said.Last month, Haryana govt banned all forms of non-dairy paneer after finding their presence in a large number of samples tested at labs. Food safety commissioner Manoj Kumar also issued a one-year statewide prohibition under Section 30(2)(a) of Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, covering analogue or non-dairy paneer, and barring its preparation using milk powder or vegetable oil. Officials were instructed to seize stocks and initiate criminal prosecution under the Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006.A senior administrative officer said that officials destroyed the entire seized batch of food and non-food items on the spot, prepared a spot panchnama to hand the matter to police for further investigation. It has also sent four product samples for lab analysis to initiate legal action under the FSS Act. “We have already submitted a complaint at the police station seeking appropriate legal action,” the officer said.Nuh SP Arpit Jain said a probe had already been initiated and an FIR would be registered soon. “Our teams are coordinating with the administrative authorities and we will register an FIR against the culprits and take further appropriate legal action,” he said.
