In a state like Gujarat, which accounts for over 60-70 per cent of total production making it the single largest producer of jeera in the country – a scam has been revealed in Unjha of Mehsana district, where manufacturers adulterated jeera with substandard ingredients like fennel husk, cream powder and jaggery vaccine. So the next time you sprinkle jeera on your food, make sure it is not fennel husk or cream powder.
Factory manager Binesh Rameshbhai Patel was caught leading a team that adulterated fake cumin in a raid by a food and drug regulatory team at a cleaning factory on Gangapura Road in Unjha, Gujarat. The fake cumin was created by mixing fennel husk, cream powder and jaggery vaccine; 3,200 kg worth Rs 84,800 was seized in the raid. Four samples of raw material used for making artificial cumin were sent to the laboratory for necessary analysis.
Officials from the Food and Drug Administration’s head office and Mehsana office, who conducted the raid, also destroyed around 200 liters of jaggery at the spot. This is also not the first time that people making fake cumin have been caught in Unjha before, added Dr HG Koshia, Commissioner, Department of Food and Drug Regulation.
Unjha’s Jeera Connection
Unjha has become a natural trading point for jeera and 27 other spices because they are cultivated within a 300-kilometre radius of the market. Farmers come here from the Sabarkantha, Banaskantha, Saurashtra and Kutch regions of Gujarat, and from Rajasthan. Located about 80 kilometres north of state capital Gandhinagar, Unjha, a town of a little over 57,000 people according to the 2011 Census, has, for generations, been the spot where farmers from across the country sell the commodity to domestic and international traders. Patel community dominates in jeera trading.
