Beware! Your branded edible oil may be adulterated

After busting factories churning spurious ghee in the city, police now have makers of adulterated edible oil on their radar. Cops on Thursday raided a factory near Gaekwad Haveli, Raikhad area, involved in packaging and distribution of adulterated edible oil and seized 15,000 litres of such oil.

Working on a tip-off received by Shangesh Bharwad and Bhavanisinh of Gaekwad Haveli D staff, police raided Emdani & Sons, a godown-cum-mini factory near Pirane Pir dargah at Jamalpur Chakla area. There, they found a tanker filled with 15,000 litres of edible oil parked outside the factory.

On inspecting the tank, police officials found that the container was divided into four compartments, three of which contained cotton seed oil while one had 5,000 litres of Palmolive oil. The oil was being transferred from the tanker to the godown using large bore pipe through four valves attached to as many outlets in the godown. When officials inspected the factory, they found Yasin Razak Memon and six others mixing Palmolive oil with cotton seed oil and pouring the mix in 15-litre tins. The tins were then sealed and labeled as popular brands available in retail market.

"They used to stick labels of well-known brands such as Trimurti, Pashupati and Ankur on their tins, so that no one doubted the contents of the tin," said Bharwad. NN Desai, senior police inspector with Gaekwad Haveli, immediately called AMC health officials to check the oil. Health officials sent samples from some tins to the lab.

"We have seized around 900 tins and sent samples for examination. We have also sealed the godown and factory on grounds of mixing non-edible material with edible oil and selling them under popular brands," said SP Kulkarni, medical health officer with AMC.