The recent seizure of 8.5 quintals of adulterated paneer from a Katra-bound bus arriving from Delhi by the Food Safety Wing of the Jammu Division and Bahu Fort Police is hardly a cause for self-congratulation. Instead, it appears to be just the tip of the iceberg, offering alarming evidence that the illegal production and distribution of adulterated paneer is continuing unabated. What is even more concerning is round the year availability of this dairy product unlike earlier times, when during the summer season there was acute shortage of this entity. This raises a critical question of whether this availability of paneer in abundance is a result of increased production, or there is something fishy going around, which should be checked immediately, or else the health of the consumers will be at stake? Given this serious concern, the concerned authorities should take this situation as a major challenge as the seizure of imported fake paneer is rather a symptom telling the sordid tale that everything is not right as far as trade of dairy products especially paneer is concerned. Reportedly, the enforcement officers of DECO for keeping a check on adulteration, and malpractices, had launched an exercise, and it was during this exercise, the team found suspected Paneer weighing about 8.5 quintals from the Katra bound bus along NH44 at Jammu. This case and many others in the past are the testimony to the fact that adulteration of paneer is going on with impunity and therefore more stringent steps should be taken to stop this menace which has the potential to put the health of people at grave risk because in most of the cases, the fake paneer (synthetic) is made of dangerous chemicals, which can cause severe health problems. The need of the hour is for the government to direct its think tank to develop small, affordable testing kits to be sold in the open market so that people can themselves check the quality of paneer while buying it from vendors. This step can also act as a strong deterrent for the unscrupulous elements indulging in such malpractices. Surely, those at the helm must take out-of-the-box steps to stop adulteration of paneer as the conventional methods are proving insufficient and inadequate.
