The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has stopped the sale of 3,142 kg of ghee, valued at about Rs 12.93 lakh, after laboratory tests found five samples from Madhupura below the prescribed standard. The civic body’s food department collected 11 samples of ghee sold as “pure” in the area, and the five that failed contained vegetable fat, according to Gujarat Samachar and an IANS report citing the food department.
The brands and the licence question
Both reports list the same five products: Gopishree Desi Cow Ghee, Shree Amrut Pure Cow Ghee, KT Krishna Premium Cow Ghee, Khushali Pure Cow Ghee and Prasang Desi Cow Ghee. Three of them passed through a distributor, Arihant Marketing, which reportedly had no FSSAI licence. Gujarat Samachar reported that the firm now faces sealing proceedings.
The traders have 30 days to appeal the lab findings. Penalty action under the Food Safety and Standards Act follows only after that window closes, so the brands named here have not yet been penalised. The AMC has also collected eight more samples and, per Gujarat Samachar, will require manufacturers and distributors to carry batch-wise lab reports.
Why ghee keeps turning up in these tests
Cow ghee sells in Ahmedabad at roughly Rs 600 a kilo, and vegetable fats cost a fraction of that. Blending the two cuts costs while keeping the look and smell close enough to fool most buyers. Food safety teams in Gujarat and neighbouring states run ghee drives every year for this reason, and seizures tend to cluster in the weeks before Navratri and Diwali, when demand for sweets and puja ghee peaks.
A “sub-standard” finding under food safety law differs from an “unsafe” one. Sub-standard means the product fails the quality specification, here the fat profile expected of milk fat. It does not by itself mean the ghee will make you ill. It does mean you paid a pure-ghee price for a product that isn’t.
What Ahmedabad buyers can check
- The FSSAI number: Packaged food must carry a 14-digit FSSAI licence or registration number. You can verify it on FSSAI’s FoSCoS portal. A missing or unverifiable number is the clearest red flag, and it is the problem the AMC flagged at Arihant Marketing.
- Price: Branded cow ghee selling well below the market rate deserves a second look.
- Complaints: Buyers can report suspect products to the AMC’s food department or through FSSAI’s Food Safety Connect app. FSSAI’s DART guide also lists simple home screening tests, though only a lab can confirm adulteration.
What to watch
Results on the eight fresh samples will show whether the problem stops at one supply chain in Madhupura or runs wider. The appeal outcome will decide whether the firms pay fines, and the AMC’s batch-report requirement, if enforced, would give inspectors a paper trail they currently lack. The AMC has not said whether it will widen sampling beyond Madhupura before the festive season.
Sources: Gujarat Samachar, IANS via Social News XYZ
This report was compiled and written with AI assistance from publicly reported sources, and reviewed for accuracy.