Chennai: The food safety officials of Kancheepuram district seized 5 tonnes of adulterated tea powder from a house in West Tambaram and detained one person, on Tuesday.
The raid was conducted in a house in Old State Bank Colony in West Tambaram and the godown in-charge Ram alias Ramakrishnan (45) was detained. The food safety officials said that Ramakrishnan would be handed over to Tambaram police.
According to officials, the raid was conducted following complaints of fake and adulterated tea powder in the locality. The food safety officials under executive officer Ramakrishnan had seized wood powder, expired tea powder and others weighing over 5 tons that were kept to make fake and adulterated tea powder in the name of popular tea brands.
The worth of the seized products is Rs 5 lakhs, the officials said.Meanwhile, executive officer Ramakrishnan said that the adulterated tea would cause gastric and kidney ailments along with cancer.
“When the unadulterated tea is dropped in cold water, the water remains same but adulterated tea will change the water into brown suggesting that the chemicals added to add colour to the tea,” Ramakrishnan said.
Ramakrishnan also urged the consumers to lodge complaints if they come across adulterated tea.
