Ahmedabad: First, we had to worry about analogue paneer that contained no dairy; then came the sauce with no tomatoes. Now, just days before Diwali, Ahmedabad’s sweet trade has thrown up another worrying question: is your mawa peda actually made of ‘analogue barfi’?Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s health and food department seized around 40,500kg of a suspected mawa substitute, which the AMC has called ‘barfi’, found at a cold storage facility in Gomtipur on Wednesday. The stock, estimated at Rs 60.8 lakh, was packed in 1,380 sacks weighing 30kg each.
AMC team seize analogue barfi from a cold storage in Gomtipur
“To make cheap sweets in the city, products like analogue barfi, similar to analogue paneer, are being used instead of mawa, and they are sold as mawa too. For consumers, that could mean paying the price of a traditional mawa sweet without it containing mawa at all,” a senior health department official said.
AMC team seize analogue barfi from a cold storage in Gomtipur
Under FSSAI standards, mawa is defined as a product obtained by partially removing water from milk in a controlled process. “A prepared sweet or barfi-like product is different and may contain sugar and other ingredients depending on how it is made,” the official said.
Analogue paneer and products
Diwali is the city’s biggest sweet-buying season, as people not only consume sweets themselves but also gift them to family and friends.As demand for pedas, gift boxes, and bulk sweet orders rises sharply during the festive season, a cheaper substitute entering the supply chain could affect not only the ingredients but also the taste, texture, sweetness, and shelf life of the sweets sold to consumers.
Applicable FSSAI rules on analogue barfi
To prevent adulteration, the civic body has decided to check the quality of mawa being used in sweets produced in the city. As part of this initiative, health department teams are carrying out raids and inspections at units that store, manufacture, and sell food items across the city.An AMC official said the team conducted a check in the Gomtipur area and found about 1,02,000kg of mawa stored by around 60 vendors.“Of this, nearly 80% of the stock belonged to 15 big vendors,” said the official, adding: “Six samples were collected to test the quality of mawa from Hasmukhbhai Mawawala, Tulsi Mawa Centre, Rajwadi Sweet (Bajrangi), Indian Dessert (Nilkanth), Purohit Mawawala and S K Mawawala.”These samples were sent to the public health laboratory to determine what the material actually is and whether it meets food-safety standards.The official said, “The maximum stock in this cold storage belonged to a company named Radhika Food Products. The company had stored 40,500kg of mawa under the names of Rajwadi Sweet and Indian Dessert. None of these sacks mentioned a batch number or expiry date. Hence, we stopped the suspicious stock from being sold.”
Why analogue barfi is not mawa graphic
He added, “Since samples have to be taken in the presence of the respective vendors, the sampling for the remaining vendors will be carried out in their presence.”“According to FSSAI standards, barfi cannot be sold as or used in place of mawa. Marketing a sweet as a ‘mawa peda’ without actual mawa misleads consumers. This is fraud against consumers, which is why we halted the sale,” the official noted.If test results do not prove the product’s authenticity, the stock will be destroyed and action will be taken against the company, said the official.
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