In May this year, the food safety department of Delhi seized 1,800 kg of ghee of Madhusudan brand from Shradhanand market near Lahori gate, Delhi. The department sent its sample to the state laboratory, which declared it fake with zero Reichert-Meissl (RM) value. According to food safety norms, ghee should not have an RM value of less than 28.
While the case was pending in the court, the sample was sent to a referral lab in Kolkata, which is under the jurisdiction of the Union health ministry. The lab’s findings completely contradicted the state laboratory’s—it declared that the ghee sample had an RM value of 26, closer to the set norm. Interestingly, the company has disowned the seized product as counterfeit.
