Amla drink banned

Amla drink that was manufactured by a private firm in Namakkal and sold across many districts was banned after laboratory test reports found it to be unsafe and substandard.

Recently, the Collector, corporation commissioner and the food safety officer received many complaints that a particular product sold in the market is causing health issues. Based on it, T. Anuradha, District Designated Officer, Tamil Nadu Food Safety and Drug Administration Department, inspected the company’s distribution office on Meyyanur Main Road and took samples. The samples were sent to the Government Food Laboratory at Udayapatti. Reports confirmed that instead of 120 ppm of Benzoic acid that was allowed in ready-to-serve beverages, 950 ppm was present.

Also, the expiry date for the concentrate product was given as six months whereas the expiry date is maximum of one month for the products. Hence, the report declared that the product was ‘unsafe, substandard and misbranding’.

A notice was served to the manufacturer and the distributor asking them to stop production and other activities. They were asked to rectify the defects and submit samples of the products to the Food Safety Officer and based on the reports they would be permitted to re-start production. Since another product, alo vera drink comes under non-standardised FSSR category, they were asked to obtain approval for the product.