A major illegal operation manufacturing adulterated desi ghee has been uncovered in Gujarat following a targeted raid in Gandhinagar district. Acting on specific information, a joint team comprising local police personnel and food safety inspectors entered a facility at Rakanpur village in the Santej GIDC industrial zone on Tuesday night. The inspection targeted an enterprise operating under the name Gajanan Food Products, where authorities seized substantial quantities of industrial vegetable fat, specialized chemical additives, and hundreds of thousands of forged labels belonging to prominent commercial brands.
Seizure of 6500 kg Vegetable Fat and Chemical Modifiers
During the search of the main manufacturing premises, inspecting officers located and confiscated approximately 6500 kg of vegetable fat stored in bulk. Alongside the raw fat, officials discovered an RM value enhancer on the property. Specialists note that such substances are typically employed to manipulate the chemical profile and physical characteristics of vegetable fats, altering their texture and appearance to closely mimic genuine clarified butter. Representative samples of the stored fats and additives were formally documented and secured for technical evaluation.
Secondary Warehouse Yielded Vast Numbers of Counterfeit Labels
The investigation expanded to an adjacent storage facility located near the primary plant. Inside this warehouse, teams found a massive cache of spurious packaging materials bearing the trademarks of reputable, well-known dairy brands. These packaging sheets and stickers had been manufactured to fit packets of various capacities and quantities. While the actual processing facility contained very few labels corresponding to its permitted vegetable fat output, the secondary godown held immense quantities of packaging for premium ghee labels, pointing to a systematic operation intended to distribute spurious products under established commercial names.
Discrepancy Between FSSAI Processing License and Packaging Recovered
Preliminary inquiries revealed that the factory owners held an official manufacturing license issued by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) strictly restricted to the production of vegetable fat. Despite this limitation, investigators discovered high volumes of packaging corresponding to commercial ghee products that the operators claimed to have no association with. Law enforcement personnel are actively determining where these printed materials were sourced, how the packaging was applied, and which wholesale or retail distribution networks received the finished items.
Involvement of FDCA and Forensic Science Laboratory Teams
Given the public health risks associated with spurious consumables, officials from the Food and Drugs Control Administration (FDCA) alongside forensic analysts from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) were deployed to the location. These scientific teams gathered official test batches of the processed fats, chemical enhancers, and any semi-finished commodities for rigorous laboratory breakdown. This intervention follows earlier enforcement actions in Gujarat, where 6,000 liters of spurious and adulterated ghee had previously been confiscated across Kamrej in Surat and Deesa in Banaskantha.
Inventory Confiscated as Supply Chain Investigation Continues
Police authorities have impounded the entire on-site inventory, along with the extensive array of fraudulent labels, to prevent any further distribution into consumer markets. Investigative agencies are now working to establish the total production volume generated by the facility, the geographical span of its distribution network, and the full list of individuals involved in operating the supply chain. Formal legal proceedings will proceed as soon as comprehensive analytical reports are received from the forensic laboratories.
