'Massive ghee adulteration can't be ruled out'

Palanpur: Mehsana’s Dudhsagar Dairy which has remained under controversies has once again landed itself in trouble.

On Saturday, Mehsana’s district superintendent of police Parthrajsinh Gohil said that the possibility of massive adulteration in ghee cannot be ruled out.

As per directives of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) – the apex body in which Mehsana dairy is a member union, Dudhsagar Dairy did not house the equipment to carry out ghee analysis.

“Pure ghee has 28 Reichert-Meissl (RM) value. Even if acetem (a food grade chemical) is mixed, its RM value remains at 28. We will look into all these aspects,” said Gohil.

The state registrar of co-operative societies has asked Mehsana police to look into the complaint made by GCMMF.

A special investigation team (SIT) headed by deputy superintendent of police Visnagar had already arrested dairy’s former managing director Nishith Baxi, vice-chairman Moghjibhai Chaudhary and two others in connection to the case.

After they were produced before the court, they were sent to three days police custody on Friday.

It was through a letter written by GCMMF’s managing director R S Sodhi last month that it came to light that the federation had stopped dispatch of 600 metric tonnes of ghee to the tune of Rs 40 crore as of the 172 batches of ghee, 118 batches were found to be unfit.

The ghee samples were tested after a sample of ghee dispatched from the Dudu plant in Rajasthan in June was found adulterated as Rajasthan police stopped a tanker that was on its way to Mehsana. The ghee sample that was checked at AmulFed, Gandhinagar contained around 16 % palm oil.