Karnataka officials seized mislabelled and expired food worth Rs 3 crore in raids across multiple facilities.
Raids followed a cancelled Bengaluru party and uncovered expired products allegedly being relabelled for sale.
Health Minister U T Khader said the government plans stricter laws to make such violations criminal offences.
The Karnataka Food and Drugs Administration Safety (KSFDA) stated that it busted an agency involved in relabelling expired food items for sale and seized mislabelled goods worth Rs 3 crore in a week, including items from Amazon and Instamart stores.
Health Minister U T Khader said on Tuesday that a “peptide party” cancelled in Bengaluru for not abiding by rules led to the discovery of expired foods relabelled for sale. “We sought information on where the materials were procured and came to know that they had procured materials from an Amazon dark store,” he said, as Indian Express reported.
Amazon Raids And Seizures
KSFDA officials then raided Amazon BLR6 in Devanahalli. They seized food products worth ₹14 lakh with incorrect or inadequate labelling, expired food products worth ₹10 lakh, and drugs worth ₹2.45 lakh that were stored without a licence.
At Amazon BLR7 in Madiwala, officials seized mislabelled food products worth ₹19 lakh and expired goods worth ₹13 lakh, along with unlicensed drugs worth ₹1,57,000.
Leo 7 Enterprises Shutdown
“There was an agency run from a shed named Leo 7 Enterprises in Lingarajapuram. We found expired food products there. The mislabelled and expired stock at this site could be worth ₹57 lakh. They bought expired items and would forge expiry dates,” the minister said, adding that the facility was subsequently shut down.
Officials also shut down an Instamart facility in Hoskote after seizing expired food products worth ₹42 lakh from there. The department said its investigation at the site was continuing, with the mislabelled and expired stock estimated to be worth ₹1 crore.
Acting on a complaint, officials raided a store called Saptha Bazaar in HBR Layout and seized expired cashew biscuits, ragi flour, chicken patties, paneer, cookies, nuts, eggs and flour worth about ₹10,000.
Criminal Offence Push
Khader said the government was writing to the law department and the central government to make it a criminal offence.
“We are writing to the law department and the central government to make it a criminal offence. As of now, the owners of these establishments are getting away with fines, but it is a criminal offence. We will formulate the law. We also request the public to file more complaints so that these violations can be curtailed,” Khader said.
