Hyderabad: With Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali noodles gaining popularity through massive advertisements crooks in Hyderabad are selling fake noodles carrying the Patanjali label. The duplicate products are being sold through some wholesale shops in Begum Bazaar and small provision shops.
An illegal noodle manufacturing unit in the Alwal area was raided by the Cyberabad Special Operation Team (SOT) on Saturday. This is the third fake noodles factory detected by the police so far.
A major part of the fake noodles has been cooked and sold by street fast food vendors across the city, police officials said.
“The maida and flour used for making these noodles are date-expired and are unfit for human consumption. They are collecting date expired items from shop owners at throwaway prices and are manufacturing noodles with machines. The gangs do not possess any licence or certification from competent authorities,” said SOT chief E. Ramachandra Reddy.
Senior officials said the offenders are trying to exploit the vacuum in the noodles market created by the Maggi controversy. They sell the duplicate product at much cheaper rates than Nestle and Pathanjali.
“Since GHMC officials are inactive these gangs are having a free run. Duplicate noodles are being sold in the market since many months now. Many roadside fast food vendors are using these noodles deliberately,” said a senior Cyderabad police official.
The fake noodles sold in the market are 15% to 20% per cent cheaper than the original ones. Police said that if a customer closely examines the packets of these noodles he or she can identify them by the crude way of packing and labelling.
After a raid at the manufacturing unit of Ritika Foods at Kanajiguda in Alwal, police seized around a 1,000 kg of noodles and raw materials used for making them from the suspects. The Hyderabad Commiss-ioner’s Task Force team raided an illegal manufacturing unit in Shareef Nagar in the third week of December and seized 700 kg of packed noodles and 1,500 kg of maida. Just a week after that raid the SOT of the Cyberabad police busted a unit at Rampally in Keesra and confiscated 800 kg noodles and a huge quantity of raw materials.
