NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party leader Raghav Chadha on Wednesday raised concerns in the Rajya Sabha over the sale of adulterated food products across the country and urged the government to strengthen food safety regulator FSSAI.
AAP leader Raghav Chadha raised the flag of food adulteration in Rajya SabhaDuring Zero Hour, Chadha said food adulteration had become “a growing health crisis”, threatening children, the elderly and pregnant women.
He demanded that the government strengthen the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, ensure adequate laboratories and increase penalties and fines.
Citing examples, Chada said, ‘garam masala’ is adulterated with brick powder and wood powder, synthetic colored tea, chicken and chicken with anabolic steroids, sugar syrup and honey with turmeric and sweetened with vegetable oil instead of desi ghee.
“When a mother gives her child a glass of milk thinking that it contains calcium and protein, she does not know that she is giving a dangerous mixture of milk and detergent,” he complained.
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Research showed that 71 percent of milk samples contained urea and 64 percent contained neutralizers such as sodium bicarbonate, he said, adding that milk production in the country was less than the amount sold. He said vegetables are being injected with oxytocin, a harmful chemical that causes dizziness, headaches, heart failure, infertility and cancer.
“From 2014-15 to 2025-26, 25 per cent of all samples tested were neutralized. God knows how many got sick, went to hospital or lost their lives,” Chadha said.
He said products made in India by the country’s two largest ‘hot spice’ manufacturers were banned in the US, UK and Europe for containing cancer-causing pesticides but were still sold domestically.
“Food products not fed to pets in other countries are being sold in India,” he said.
Chadha suggested strengthening FSSAI with adequate manpower and testing facilities, increasing fines and penalties and introducing a public recall mechanism to name and withdraw adulterated products from the market.
Meanwhile, another leader, Ashok Kumar Mittal, expressed concern over attacks on Indians abroad, noting that they contributed ₹15 lakh crore annually through remittances, which is 15 percent of India’s total foreign exchange.
He cites several incidents: an Indian attacking a six-year-old child in Ireland and telling him to “go back”; Old Sikh Navpreet Singh forced to remove his turban near a railway station in Wolverhampton, UK; 20-year-old doctor Shiv Kavasthi shot dead near Toronto International Airport, Canada; and the beheading of Chandranath Mallya in the United States.
“These are not just newspaper headlines. It is the mourning of families who sent their children abroad for a golden future, only to return their dead bodies wrapped in shrouds,” Mittal said.
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