Don't quench your thirst with coloured drinks

Chennai:

It's that time of the year again when the city sees varied hues in packets and bottles -colours that can parch one's thirst as well as make stomachs turn.

As the mercury breached the 40-degree Celsius mark this past week, food safety and drug administration department found 70 shops selling unhygienic and spurious soft drinks in the city. In a clear sign that racketeers continue to flood markets with adulterated food items, officials seized 1,384 packets of unhygienic coloured water, 175 bottles of spurious soft drinks and 600 packets of contaminated water.

“Most of the seizures were from tea stalls and betel-nut shops near bus stands and market areas,“ said district food safety officer S Lakshmi Narayan. He said the packets of water and coloured water seized had no labels and the colour additives used were unapproved. The raids were conducted in Koyambedu, Broadway , Aminjikarai, Villivakkam, Anna Nagar and TNagar. Officials said they would intensify raids across the city in the next few days.

Last year, from April to June, officials seized over 3,800 packets containing coloured water, 1,345 bottles of spurious soft drinks and 2,000 water packets with no labels -all worth close to Rs40,000. Officials say while the figure may look small, the expense incurred for any damage to health is much more.

The modus operandi of the racketeers is to refill used bottles of beverages manufac tured by major brands and seal them with matching caps collected from garbage piles. Food safety experts warn that at least 5% of soft drinks that come with a branded label are fake. “Sometimes, they fill these bottles with badam and rose milk made in unhygienic conditions,“ said a food safety official. Officials say several il legal soft drink manufacturing units are flourishing, especial ly in the suburbs. Some of the `filling units' are located in Me davakkam, Padur and Keelkat talai in Kancheepuram, and Poonamallee, Padianallur, Ala pakkam, and Red Hills in Tiru vallur. Many such units start manufacturing soda and switch to cool drinks. “These drinks are usually sold outside educational institutions, bus stands, railway stations, markets and Tasmac shops,“ said the official.

Health experts say spurious soft drinks can cause hepatitis, stomach ailments and typhoid. “The colouring agents used have synthetic dyes that could be contaminated with chemicals. The most common colours used are red, blue and yellow,“ said nutritionist Meenakshi Bajaj. These chemicals can cause a range of problems like allergy , skin rash, nausea and fever. “These will be in addition to the problems caused by the contaminated water,“ she said.

Complaints can be made to the food safety department at 044-23813095.