The Delhi High Court suggested several measures to curb adulteration of eatables, especially fruits and vegetables, like large-scale testing and sending back contaminated food products to manufacturers or farmers. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar said “something has to be done” to ensure that people do not consume adulterated products as it could lead to “extremely serious health problems”.
The court said testing on a vast scale was the only way to find out if adulteration, like use of ripening agent calcium carbide, was being done by farmers or retailers and traders.
It said the Delhi government’s Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) can carry out the testing exercise by deploying mobile vans which can go from place to place in the national capital and check the agricultural produce coming here from other states.
“Checking and testing has to be on a vast scale and on a daily basis. High time we have mobile vans to go from place to place for checking and testing,” the bench said.
