Tea is the most consumed drink in the country, after water. Sipping on a hot cuppa first thing in the morning is a ritual for crores of people, rich or poor. But don’t let the dark colour in your tea cup fool you into thinking it is of fine quality.
Members of the Telangana Tea Merchants Association have warned about the rampant sale of adulterated/ sub-standard tea in a few pockets of Telangana, and that it is fast spreading to other parts.
President of the association, Darvesh Hameeduddin Shahid said that initially, the issue was restricted to rural pockets of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, but has now spread to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. “It is being detected in other States too,” he added.
To generate awareness, they have released a set of simple methods to test if tea powder is adulterated.
Explaining one of the ways in which the product is adulterated, an official from the State Food Safety department said, “Used tea powder is dried and then mixed with low-quality unused tea powder. All of it is coloured to make it appear uniform, and then sold.”
Amit Agarwal, member of the association executive body, shared another method of creating sub-standard tea powder. “Low-quality tea powder is coated with synthetic colour so that the product releases a thick colour as soon as it is mixed with water, giving an impression that it is of good quality,” he said.
