Uttar Pradesh's Food Safety and Drug Administration stepped up its crackdown on suspected adulterated food, destroying about 16.3 quintals of food products worth around Rs 20 lakh during an overnight inspection drive.
Enforcement teams carried out inspections on August 25-26, checking vehicles carrying food at toll plazas, highways and connecting roads across the state, the government said in a statement.
Teams inspected 97 vehicles and found suspected adulteration or unhygienic conditions in 28 of them. They collected 35 samples for laboratory testing and destroyed food that was being stored or transported in unsafe conditions.
The department has increased surveillance on key supply routes ahead of Raksha Bandhan on August 28, when demand for sweets, khoya, paneer, milk and namkeen typically rises.
During an inspection on the Delhi highway in Mathura, paneer worth Rs 3 lakh was destroyed over suspected quality concerns, while one sample was sent for testing.
About 10 quintals of khoya worth Rs 3.30 lakh was destroyed after being found in unhygienic conditions in two vehicles on the Meerut highway. Two samples were collected.
On the Ayodhya-Gorakhpur highway, officials stopped a vehicle carrying about 3,416kg of namkeen, valued at Rs 32,000, and collected samples for testing.
Two vehicles on the Pilkhuwa-Hapur highway were found carrying about 1,670kg of khoya in unhygienic conditions. Khoya worth around Rs 35,000 was destroyed and five samples were collected.
In Baghpat, about 520kg of khoya worth Rs 1.44 lakh was destroyed after being found stored in unhygienic conditions.
In Aligarh, officials destroyed about 7,000 litres of milk valued at Rs 1.75 lakh on the Noida route.
In Kanpur, around 500kg of unsafe khoya worth Rs 1.75 lakh was destroyed on the railway route.
On the Noida-Delhi route, about 185kg of paneer suspected to have been manufactured using chemicals was destroyed.
In Gorakhpur, about 600kg of prepared milk cake-like sweets was found in a vehicle on the Ayodhya-Basti route and destroyed.
(With inputs from PTI)