Hyderabad’s adulterated food raids: Decoy buyers, tip-offs lead to a series of busts

A small, dimly lit room in the rear of a shop in a busy residential colony, plastic containers stacked against a flaking wall and sacks of raw material lying on stained floors. Poorly ventilated rooms with a strong smell of oils and spices, grimy containers and finished products kept in unhygienic conditions, exposed to dust and flies, are some other spaces that the police personnel in Hyderabad have been visiting over the past month. The raids have led to the seizure of thousands of kilograms of raw material and hundreds of kilograms of adulterated food products.

According to officials, such operations rarely begin with a raid. They usually start with a tip-off, from an informer, a local resident or even a customer who suspects something about a product being off. Once the information reaches the police, the first step is to verify it. This is often done through decoy operations, said N. Ranjith Kumar Goud, Inspector of the newly formed Anti Food Adulteration Wing.