Ahmedabad: On Monday, a ‘customer’ walked into a shop in Kalupur that sells gold and silver foil used to decorate sweets. A while later, the shop, H M Warakhwala, was sealed. The silver foil was found to be fake. What led health inspectors to the shop was a stock of foil-coated biscuits being sold from a handcart in the Memco area. A rapid test on the biscuits revealed that the foil was not made from real silver. Investigations revealed that it had been bought from the Kalupur shop, officials said, adding that the team then decided to send in a man posing as a customer.“An inspector went in posing as a customer wanting to buy silver foil. The foil purchased failed the purity test,” an official said, adding, “A total of 170 packets of fake silver foil were found on the premises. Each packet containing 10 leaves was being sold for Rs 250. The total value of the stock seized is Rs 42,500. It will be further analysed at the public food laboratory. The shop was also selling original gold foil — a packet of ten leaves for Rs 1,000. Although the rapid test showed it to be pure, stocks will yet be tested at the laboratory.”The food business operator also failed to furnish purchase bills and details of where the silver foil was sold.On Aug 25, this year, ahead of Rakshabandhan, AMC had tested kaju katli from 22 establishments for foil purity. A rapid test at Shree Kaniyalal Mawawala in Kalupur revealed that the ‘silver’ foil had other metals. The unit was sealed. The kaju katli stock came from a sweets factory operating out of a house in the Gujarat Housing Board colony in Bapunagar.
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