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Expired, relabelled for sale: Rs 3-cr food seized in Bengaluru Amazon, Instamart raids
Officials also found that an agency operating from a Bengaluru shed bought and relabelled expired food items.
KSFDA raids on multiple firms exposed storage of expired food items and mislabelled goods worth Rs 3 crore in Bengaluru. (Photo by special arrangement)
The Karnataka Food and Drugs Administration Safety (KSFDA) busted an agency involved in relabelling expired food items for sale and seized such mislabelled goods worth Rs 3 crore, including from Amazon and Instamart stores, in just one week, officials said.
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.
KSFDA officials then raided an Amazon storage facility called Amazon BLR6 in Devanahalli. They seized Rs 14 lakh worth of food products with incorrect or inadequate labelling and Rs 10 lakh worth of expired food products, along with drugs worth Rs 2.45 lakh stored without a licence.
At Amazon BLR7 in Madiwala, mislabelled food products worth Rs 19 lakh and expired goods worth Rs 13 lakh were seized, along with unlicensed drugs worth Rs 1,57,000.
“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 Rs 57 lakh. They bought expired items and would forge expiry dates,” the minister said, adding that the facility was subsequently shut down.
Officials also seized unlicensed drugs during the raids. (Photos by special arrangement)
Officials also shut down an Instamart facility in Hoskote after seizing expired food products worth Rs 42 lakh from there. The department said its investigation at the site was continuing, with the mislabelled and expired stock estimated to be worth Rs 1 crore.
Acting on a complaint, the 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 Rs 10,000.
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“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.
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