Hyderabad’s ghee check, 36 tonnes paused
H-FAST and Food Safety hit 130 units in one day. Lab results now decide how much of that “ghee” was actually ghee — a sentence that shouldn’t need saying in 2026.
Samples seized during Hyderabad’s August 18 food-safety inspections await laboratory testing.
Hyderabad’s Food Adulteration Surveillance Team (H-FAST) and the Food Safety Department inspected 130 establishments on August 18 — 39 ghee manufacturing units and 91 outlets — and seized 25.5 tonnes of suspected adulterated ghee plus 10.5 tonnes of raw materials, according to a PTI video update carried in city reporting. Statutory samples were drawn and sent for testing; legal action will follow the lab reports, officials said.
The detailed inventory published from the operation lists 25.5 tonnes of suspect ghee and raw stock including 8.7 tonnes of cream, 1,200 litres of palm oil, 600 litres of vanaspati, 30 kg of starch and artificial ghee flavouring agents. That is an inspections sweep, not yet a conviction; no laboratory findings or prosecution records were publicly available at the time of writing.
Hyderabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar urged buyers to stick to reputed, licensed vendors — good advice while the science catches up with the seizures. The BJP-led Centre’s food-safety talk has never funded enough inspectors for the scale of India’s dairy market, and Congress-run states are not exactly models either. Telangana is doing the raids; the national parties can try doing their bit between slogans.