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| P-Mark’s ‘counterfeit’ mustard oil found substandard, 700 tins seized | | | Saahil Suhail
Early Times Report
Anantnag, Nov 10: After multiple tests, the Food Safety and Standards Department in Kashmir has found P-Mark mustard oil of substandard quality and seized around 700 tins across Kashmir.
The officials however claim that the seized tins of mustard oil could be counterfeit and falsely branded as P-Mark Mustard edible oil.
According to reports, Kulgam Police last month seized a truck bearing registration number JK13E-9933 ferrying P-Mark Mustard edible oil from Kulgam to Jammu in suspicious circumstances. Around 415 tins with batch number 395 were seized and the driver was arrested. “FIR has been registered and investigation into this case is going on,” a police official confirmed to ET.
They said that the Food Safety and Standards Department accordingly lifted a sample of the mustard oil from Police Station Qaimoh on 22-10-2021.
In its reports, the Food Analyst of Kashmir, Mufti Imtiyaz Ahmad Farooqi has said that the sample doesn’t conform to the standards prescribed for mustard oil.
The value of Saponification and iodine was found too high during testing and it was declared sub-standard, they said. The Food Safety and Standards Department also lifted samples from Ganderbal, Baramullah and Anantnag districts of Kashmir. While the report of the sample lifted from Anantnag is awaited, sources said that the sample lifted from Ganderbal has also tested sub-standard.
Senior officials in the Food Safety and Standards Department claimed that they were working hard to expose the plot behind supplying sub-standard mustard oil in Kashmir. “Investigation into the matter is going on and we are about to get the actual criminal,” they said.
They said that the department has put P-Mark Company on notice and asked them to clarify as they deserve to be heard first as per the norms.
In Anantnag, the department has conveyed to SSP Kulgam that the seized tin of mustard oil appears to be a counterfeit product.
Abdul Wahid, who heads sales of P-Mark in Kashmir Division, told Early Times that they have already conveyed to the department that seized tins of mustard oil are counterfeit products.
According to Food Safety and Standard Department Officials’, the sub-standard mustard oil was supplied to Malik General Store Kulgam by a firm which is not associated with P-Mark and has its own brand of mustard oil. “One tin of the mustard oil leaked and I took it home where I found that it doesn’t smell like mustard oil so I decided to return back to the person who supplied it to me,” Showket Malik, who runs Malik General Store in Kulgam told ET. |
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