A joint team comprising representatives from the Department of Commerce (DoC), the DFTQC, consumer rights organizations and Kathmandu District Administration Office (DAO) had raided and sealed the production units and showrooms of Corner Taja Gudpak Bhandar and Shree Krishna Gudpak Bhandar in New Road last week after they were found producing and recycling gudpak using rotten and stinking raw materials. [break]
The laboratory investigation report, which has been sent to Kathmandu District Administration Office (DAO) -- a quasi-judicial body that is overseeing the cases, stated that the samples had massive Total Mesophillic Count (TMC) with 9200 heads of bacteria per gram and Mold count with presence of 43 fungus per gram due to production in Staphylococcus --- highly unhygienic production condition and Bacillus Cereus -- a bacterial level.
“The samples have been found highly contaminated with high concentration of bacteria at post-production phases,” Pramod Koirala, spokesperson of the DFTQC, told Republica.
The report also suggests that the infestation in gudpak samples pose huge risk of spreading bacteria from the workers at production unit to other persons, said Koirala.
Similarly, the investigation found Staphylococcus positive and Bacillus Cereus at 17 per gram.
In an another case, the investigation report of DFTQC states that that samples of Kanhaiya brand of ghee collected from Anamol Sweets contained zero level of clarified butter against the minimum requirement level of 28 points.
“The level of clarified butter in the samples was nil. Refractive indices also showed that the samples were merely vegetable ghee and not clarified butter as claimed by the producer,” added Koirala.
The Kathmandu DAO had raided Anmol Sweets along with half a dozen sweets producers and retailers about two weeks ago. It had found most of those eateries using substandard raw materials.
- Mesophillic Bacteria count: 9200 heads per gram
- Mold count: 43 per gram
- Bacillus Bacteria count: 17 per gram
- Infestation in post production level
- Kanhaiya ghee contained zero level of clarified butter
Police had arrested B L Sharma and Suman Sharma of Anmol Sweets and Lok Prasad Agrawal of Kanhaiya Ghee last week and initiated investigations against them under the Black Marketeering Act.
Madan Baba Maskey, proprietor of Corner Taja Gudpak Bhandar and her son Narendra Maskey, and Milan Lal Maskey of Shri Ram Gudpak Bhandar are also in police net for selling substandard products.
Related story
Tooth Decay is not a curse
