KAKINADA: East Godavari district has become a hub of tea powder adulteration of late. Several units manufacturing adulterated tea powder have come up across the district. Tea powder is adulterated with powder of tamarind seeds, cashew nut peel, red ash, detergent powder and other materials. The adulterated tea powder is being supplied to unscrupulous traders in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, Odisha, Bihar, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh.
The police busted an adulterated tea powder manufacturing unit at RS Peta in Bikkavolu mandal after conducting a raid on December 8.
Two persons were arrested in connection with the racket. About 1,650 kg of raw material used for adulterating tea power, 6,150 kg of adulterated tea powder, 1,850 kg of detergent powder, 3,100 kg of fine clay powder, and 2,500 kg of cashew nut peel were seized from a rice mill at RS Peta in the raid. As part of the probe into tea powder adulteration racket, more raids were conducted by police.
Five bags of adulterated tea power, each weighing 35 kg, were seized from the house of Manda Satyanarayana at Mandapeta on December 17.
Tea samples from units sent for testing
About 2,000 bags of cashew nut peel, each weighing 25 kg, were seized at Duppalapudi in Anaparthi mandal on Saturday night. Ramachandrapuram DSP Balachandra Reddy told TNIE that several units were manufacturing adulterated tea powder in the district.
During the probe it was revealed that Kallakuri Srinivas was supplying raw materials to Goluguri Anil Sekhar Reddy of Anaparthi and Ramar Marimattu of Tamil Nadu, who are producing adulterated tea powder. The adulterated tea powder is being marketed by Punyamanthula Rambabu of Pithapuram, the DSP said.
On being alerted, assistant food control officer B Srinivas collected samples from several tea powder manufacturing units and sent them to lab in Hyderabad for analysis. “We will start conducting raids on shops in the district to curb the sale of adulterated tea powder. People should be cautious while purchasing tea powder,” he said.