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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Raghav Chadha, on Wednesday, in a speech during the Zero Hour of the Rajya Sabha budget session, described food adulteration in India as a "raging health crisis".
He stated that Indians are consuming food items that would not even be fed to pets in other countries, raising serious concerns about widespread food adulteration, calling it a "raging health crisis" affecting children, the elderly, and pregnant women. Speaking under the chairmanship of Vice President CP Radhakrishnan, Chadha highlighted that food items in the market are being adulterated with unsafe chemicals, harmful additives, and misleading labels. "Under the guise of fake 'purity' labels, poison is being sold openly. Milk, spices, edible oils, packaged foods, and beverages contain unsafe additives, high saturated fats, sugar, and salt while claiming to be 'good for health' or 'energy boosters,'" he said. He highlighted concerns about food safety, citing widespread contamination and specific examples of adulterants in milk, vegetables, spices, sweets, and poultry. Chadha gave examples of contamination in daily essentials: "milk containing urea; vegetables injected with oxytocin; paneer with starch and caustic soda; ice cream with detergent powder; fruit juices with artificial colors; edible oil mixed with machine oil; garam masala adulterated with brick powder and sawdust; tea with synthetic color; chicken and poultry injected with anabolic steroids; honey diluted with sugar syrup; and sweets made with vanaspati instead of desi ghee." He warned that these adulterated products pose severe health risks, including dizziness, heart failure, infertility, and even cancer. Citing research, Chadha said, "71% of milk samples tested contained urea, and 64% contained neutralisers such as sodium bicarbonate. Between 2014-15 and 2025-26, one in every four food samples tested in India was found to be adulterated." Chadha also criticised companies selling products in India that are banned internationally. "Sir, food adulteration is a raging health crisis, and it is a major alarm bell specifically for children, the elderly, and pregnant women. Sir, are the products manufactured in India but banned internationally--those of two of our largest garam masala companies, banned in the US, UK, and Europe for containing cancer-causing pesticides --still being sold here? Food not even fed to pets in other countries is being consumed by Indians," he said. Chadha urged the government to take immediate action through the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), proposing measures such as, strengthening FSSAI with more manpower and better lab facilities, introducing a "name and shame" system for adulterated products, increasing penalties for violators and banning misleading health claims in ads. (ANI)
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