Rajahmundry: Adulteration of tea powder with harmful synthetic food colours has become rampant, causing concern to consumers over likely health hazards in the Godavari districts. Food safety officials recently booked a Rajahmundry-based stockist and wholesale vendor on charges of adulteration of tea powder. Jagannadham Venkata Reddy, who runs Assam Tea Company, used to procure tea powder from Coonoor and sell it to retailers after adding synthetic food colours like tartrazine, sunset yellow and black based on demand to enhance flavour, strength and colour.
As consumers get addicted, the demand for adulterated tea powder only grows. Food safety officials during their inspection of Assam Tea Company had earlier noticed that Venkata Reddy used only cheap quality tea powder to add harmful colours. A kg of tea dust costs between Rs 200 and Rs 300 a kg.
One gram of food colour is added, and the tea is packed in 200-gram packets. The vendor earns a huge margin. Food safety authorities lifted samples of tea dust from Assam Tea Company and sent it to the state food lab. Its report said the product was ‘unsafe’ or it was unfit for human consumption. The authorities sent another set of samples to an accredited food lab located at Mysuru which also returned a similar report.
