Health drink products seized from godown

A team of officials of the Department of Food Safety conducted raids on two places here on Wednesday and seized Rs.1.30 lakh-worth “weight management and health drink products” being marketed by Herbalife.

“Since Herbalife, the company marketing a range of products as weight management and health drink products, has not obtained the mandatory approval from the Food Safety Standards Authority of India, New Delhi, for selling them as food in the Indian market, we’ve seized them,” said Jegadish Chandra Bose, Designated Officer, Department of Food Safety, who led the raid.

In the raid conducted in a godown near Rathna Theatre, the officials seized Rs.1 lakh-worth Herbalife products while another raid conducted at Pioneer Kumarasamy Nagar in Perumalpuram led to the confiscation of Rs.30,000-worth products.

Dr. Bose, who is holding additional charge of Tirunelveli district along with Tuticorin district, said the products were being sold to the public under multi-level marketing system.

As the officials had collected samples of these products to be sent for analysis, further action could be taken based on the results.

Dr.Bose said regular brisk walking and a diet chart designed by a qualified physician alone could prove to be a credible weight management regimen.

“There is no shortcut for weight loss as being promised by a few companies,” he said.

The Designated Officer also informed that Herbalife, by regularly organising meetings in luxury hotels, was enticing the public to sell its products. “All the products being marketed by this company have been priced at thousands of rupees and hence the company follows multi-level marketing strategy to push the products,” Dr.Bose added.

Food Safety Officers A.R. Sankaralingam, Kalimuthu, Ibrahim and Kaliyanandi conducted the raids.