If you thought that preparing items like chutneys, sprouts and salads at home and ordering paani puri or sev puri packets from a reputed farsan shop in the neighbourhood will ensure that you have given the best and healthy chaat option to your loved ones, think twice.
The lip-smacking fried and dried snacks at your favourite, brightly illuminated shops are sourced from manufacturing units operating from dark, dingy hutments in slum pockets. As far as the quality of the ingredients is concerned, one doesn't require tests in a forensic lab. Mere sight of them is enough to put you off.
This startling revelation comes following a series of raids conducted by civic officials in Malad on Monday. This correspondent, who was witness to the BMC action, also learnt that the snack-making factories liberally use harmful colours, substandard oil, dals and caustic soda in the most unhygienic condition.
A team led by Devendrakumar Jain, assistant commissioner of P-North ward, which has jurisdiction over Malad, swooped down on a couple of units that supply paani puris, sev puris, fried noodles used for Chinese bhel, salty moong dal and spicy chana dal to shops all over the city.
The first such unit was a 150 sqft room at Jai Bhim Nagar on Film City Road in Malad East. It has two huge furnaces, which are continuously fuelled with sawdust and crushed wood. The unit is also home to the people who work there. The staff cook, eat, sleep and stay on the same premises.
Owner Krishna Maruti Pansare and his workers frantically tried to hide their stock and machines. However, by that time, they had already been cornered from all sides by Jain's team comprising 60-odd officials.
The officials found poor quality ingredients and oil that turned black after several rounds of frying. Chana dal and moong dal were soaked in drums and kept in the open, adjacent to ill-maintained gutters. The water, according to the officials, is sourced from illegal connection which attracts contamination.
Another raided manufacturing unit, owned by one Anthony Raj, is known for spicy, crispy green peas, a popular snack, and an ingredient of chivda. White peas were found to be made green using cheap colours.
"Using the same oil repeatedly for deep frying over and over not only leads to accumulated cholesterol but also become carcinogenic. Inferior colours can harm lungs, intestines and they too are cancer-causing," said Dr Nazneen Khan, medical officer of Health Department for P-North ward.
Officials were greeted with greasy oil cans and cheap chickpea flour, which are used instead of besan, at a factory at Appa Pada, Datta Mandir Road in Kurar Village. This unit, owned by Chhatramal Parihar, specialises in farsan, corn chivda and fried groundnuts.
"The cheap items are hidden with the help of tangy, spicy and lip-smacking taste. No one realises that caustic soda is used for making the farsan soft, crispy and crunchy. Dried mango, chilli powder and taste enhancers are used in plenty so that no one finds out about the sub-standard material. They also have a special machine to remove excess oil from the fried items." said civic official.
Jain promised to continue action against such units, which are operating from squalor, saying the owners are playing with people's health. He said the cheap items can cost citizen dear in terms of medical treatment. "We have resolved to take action every now and then until these unit owners are demoralised and shut the factories."
