Police bust fake tea manufacturing unit in Cuttack, 45 quintals seized

The adulterated tea was being sold in the name of brands like Tata Tea Premium Dust, My Tea Premium Dust and Leela Tea Premium Dust in markets across Odisha
The owner of the fake tea unit has been detained and is being interrogated, said police (Photo | Express)
The owner of the fake tea unit has been detained and is being interrogated, said police (Photo | Express)

CUTTACK: Continuing its crackdown on the manufacture and sale of adulterated food items, the Commissionerate police on Wednesday busted a fake tea manufacturing unit at Mukameswar village under Sadar police limits in Cuttack district.

Acting on a tip-off, a team of police officials conducted a surprise raid and seized a huge cache of adulterated tea powder, raw materials, duplicate labels of branded tea companies, tea-processing and packaging machines from the factory.

“We have seized around 45 quintals of adulterated tea and raw materials from the unit. The ingredients stored inside the factory for preparation of tea look like tea powder but have no smell. We are suspecting the ingredients to be the powder of either some green leaf or seeds. Samples of the materials have been collected by the Food Safety Officer and sent to the Bhubaneswar based Food Testing Laboratory for examination,” said Cuttack Sadar police station IIC Sudhansu Bhusan Jena.

The unit was operating in a clandestine manner for the last four to five years and the adulterated tea was being sold in the name of brands like Tata Tea Premium Dust, My Tea Premium Dust and Leela Tea Premium Dust in markets across Odisha.

While pouches of Tata Tea Premium were being manufactured in the factory for misbranding of the fake tea, the owner also used to manufacture and sell adulterated tea under his own brands without any authorisation. The owner of the fake tea unit has been detained and is being interrogated, Jena informed.

During interrogation, the accused confessed to have learnt how to prepare the fake tea from a unit at Malgodown where he earlier was working and later from a similar unit at Ranihat. He set up his own factory at Mukameswar and continued his business by procuring the raw materials from Banaras.

“We have also got information about another unit outside the district. Efforts are on to locate the factory,” said Jena.

Health experts have said that consumption of adulterated tea is harmful for health. Recently, the Commissionerate police had busted over 23 fake units manufacturing different kinds of food materials like honey, sauce, spices, edible oil, turmeric powder and ghee in the city.

Last month, the Commissionerate police had seized one quintal of spurious synthetic paneer being transported from Kolkata to Cuttack in a private bus.

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The New Indian Express
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