Khoa or Mawa is an ingredient that is in high demand during festivals as it is used for making several traditional Indian sweets. Since khoa is a versatile ingredient it can be used for making an array of sweets like barfi, peda, milk cake, kalakand, halwa etc. It has often been reported to the FSSAI that adulterated Khoa is being manufactured and marketed across the country.
Recently the Federation of Sweets and Namkeen manufacturers met the CEO, FSSAI and raised the issue of adulterated Khoa which was being supplied to them. As a result of this, a pilot survey was conducted by Department of Food Safety, Delhi under the guidance of FSSAI, where they placed Food Safety on Wheels (FSWs) at Mori Gate Khoa Mandi in Delhi between 31st August to 4th September 2020.
During this survey, Khoa samples were tested by the FSW staff for 3 parameters viz. Titratable acidity, maximum added starch and added sugar in Khoa. A part of the Khoa samples were also sent to the State Food Testing Laboratory for testing of other five parameters viz. Urea, Detergent, Neutralizer, Baudouin and B.R. reading.
Considering that there was some failure in the samples collected at Delhi during the pilot survey, it has been decided by the FSSAI to conduct a Pan–India Khoa Quality survey. The Commissioner Food Safety of all States/UTs have been requested to select Khoa mandis in their respective States/UTs especially in big cities; where they then placed the FSWs for 5 days in selected khoa mandis between 12th to 16th October 2020 and encouraged Khoa buyers to get their Khoa samples tested.
So far, the food authority has received ~700 samples for testing across 15 States/ UTs. Others will submit the data soon. The test results are expected in a month’s time. The final survey results will help in identification of the key hot spots for adulteration of Khoa in different parts of the country and strengthen efforts at the States/UT level in devising targeted enforcement drives in the coming months. The whole exercise is aimed at ensuring availability of pure and safe Khoa for safe Indian sweets in the country.
Source : FSSAI
Leave a Reply