Is That Cumin or Wood in Your Jeera Rice?
The Thane Police has arrested 2 men for running an adulterated jeera racket of making fake jeera from wood, branding it with fake labels of a reputed brand & selling it in Mumbai & to highway dhabas.
You all must have had Jeera rice at least once, haven’t you? Jeera is a common ingredient in the Indian household. Apart from adding a unique flavor & giving a distinct fragrance to food, Jeera also improves digestion, increases metabolism, burns fat, hydrates the body, relieves acidity, and reduces the chances of type 2 diabetes. Amazing! But are you sure that it is in fact ‘jeera’ in your jeera rice or is it something else? Recently, a big case of jeera adulteration came to light. Two people were caught by Thane Police on 25th January for running the adulterated jeera racket in Mumbai. The accusers are 33-year-old Palghar resident Shadab Khan and 34-year-old Kandivali resident Chetan Gandhi. According to the police officials, Shadab & Chetan used to sell adulterated jeera in tonnes (thousands of kgs) to retailers (shops) & dhabas on the highways leading to Pune, Nashik, Ahmedabad, and Goa from Mumbai. The racket was busted after Bhiwandi’s Shanti Nagar police station received a tip-off revealing that a tempo, carrying spurious (fake) jeera would be coming to the Nagaon Fatma Nagar area. The police laid a trap accordingly to intercept the tempo and arrested Shadab & Chetan. According to the police officials, the tempo was carrying over 3 tonnes (3000 kg) of fake jeera worth ?7.19 lakh. During the interrogation, police learned that Chetan owned a factory in Manor in Palghar where he made the product.On 26th January 2024, the police along with the Food and Drug Administration raided the factory and seized goods worth ?30 Lakh including the machinery & equipment and a pickup vehicle worth ?11 lakh. During the investigation, the police found out how the fake jeera was made. According to the reports, Chetan & Shadab used to buy jeera waste and wood from Gujarat and mix them with chemical powder to make it look exactly like jeera. They also mixed in small amounts of real jeera so that it tastes and smells authentic, and its quality is not questioned. The adulterated jeera was then neatly packed with fake labels of a reputed brand. Chetan & Shadab then sold the fake jeera at half the current market price which caused huge demands from their customers. To confirm the fakeness of jeera, police officials added some of it to the water. The water turned black color, showing Jeera’s true nature. The police also learned that the factory was set up without any permission from the local administration.The police have sealed the alleged factory.Samples of fake jeera have been sent to the Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Kalina, Santacruz for formal analysis. Therefore, the next time you buy jeera, make sure that both the seller and jeera are authentic.
