The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has decided to conduct a pan-India Khoa quality survey after industry stakeholders raised concerns on adulteration.

Khoa, also known as mawa, is the main ingredient in an array of traditional Indian sweets such as barfis, milk cake and peda among others.

“The Commissioner Food Safety of all States/UTs were requested to select Khoa mandis in their respective States/UTs especially in big cities from 12th to 16th October 2020 and encourage Khoa buyers to get their Khoa sample tested,” the food safety authority said on Thursday.

The food safety authority said that so far it has received about 700 samples from 15 States and UTs as part of the pan-India survey conducted between October 12 and October16. It added that it is expects more samples from other States in the coming days.

Dairy adulteration

The regulator said that time and again complaints have been made regarding manufacturing and marketing of adulterated Khoa and recently an industry body- Federation of Sweets and Namkeen Manufacturers also raised concerns on the issue.

The regulator, which expects to get the test results in a month, said that the final survey will help in identification of the key hot spots for adulteration of Khoa in different parts of the country and strengthen efforts at the States/UT levels in devising targeted enforcement drives in the coming months.

Quality parameters

A pilot survey was conducted by Department of Food Safety, Delhi under the guidance of FSSAI by placing Food Safety on Wheels (FSWs) at Mori Gate Khoa Mandi in Delhi between August 31 and September 4.

“During this survey, Khoa samples were tested by the FSW staff for 3 parameters — Titratable acidity, maximum added starch and added sugar in Khoa. A part of the Khoa samples were also sent to the State Food Testing Laboratory for testing of other five parameters — Urea, Detergent, Neutraliser, Baudouin and B.R. reading. Considering that there was some failure (sub standard) in the samples collected at Delhi during the pilot survey, it has been decided to conduct a pan-India Khoa Quality survey,” the statement added.

Source : The hindu Businessline