Sunita SomvanshiFake Desi Ghee
Diwali sweets depend on good ghee, and officials have now seized thousands of kilos of suspected fake desi ghee. If you bought cow ghee for festive cooking, you can run basic checks at home. They are not lab tests and cannot confirm purity. Here is how the raids happened and what to check.
Gujarat’s Special Operations Group (SOG) police raided a counterfeit ghee operation in Junagadh and seized more than 300 tins. Samples were sent to a laboratory in Vadodara. The product was sold as “A2 Gir Cow Desi Ghee” at ₹600 per kg. Reports say it contained soybean oil, castor oil and chemical essence, and was sold under the brands “Braj Matuki” and “Keshav.” The accused, Kamlesh Sodha, allegedly ran it for four to five years. In Punjab, a food safety team raided a factory in Kailash Nagar, Ludhiana. It seized 3,540 kg of product and destroyed 675 kg of expired stock. Samples are with a laboratory, and adulteration has not been confirmed.
If you bought loose or discounted ghee for Diwali sweets, check the seal, the manufacturer’s details and the FSSAI licence number. Avoid unsealed tins.
Home checks such as melting ghee on the palm or in a pan cannot establish purity or identify adulterants. Only laboratory testing can confirm what a ghee contains.
There is no home test that proves purity. A laboratory test is needed to confirm what a ghee contains.
Buy ghee in sealed packs with a clearly printed licence number. If something looks wrong, report it through FSSAI’s Food Safety Connect portal. For more festive food checks, read our festive sweet adulteration warnings.
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