The Rajasthan city of Alwar has long been known across the region for one sweet in particular — its kalakand. But that very reputation is now under a cloud. The kalakand sold in local markets has not escaped the reach of adulteration, and repeated checks by the district health department reveal that tampering runs through everything from this famous sweet to everyday eatables.
A Worrying Two-and-a-Half-Year Tally
Over the past two and a half years, the department dispatched more than 1,900 food samples to the laboratory. Of these, over 500 failed to clear testing and were declared substandard. The figure points to a trade in adulterated food that is operating not at some small, isolated level but on a large scale across the market.
The samples that failed were not limited to kalakand alone. Milk, other varieties of sweets, spices, and even common snacks like samosa and kachori were all found to be adulterated. While the department continues to act from time to time, officials are equally clear that shoppers themselves need to stay alert when buying sweets and food.
Year-by-Year Failures
Alwar's Chief Medical and Health Officer, Dr. Yogendra Sharma, said the district mounts action against those who adulterate food every year. In 2024, the department collected 907 food samples, of which 290 failed testing. Of these, 106 cases were filed in the ADM court, where offenders were hit with penalties totalling 34 lakh 72 thousand rupees.
The watch on adulterators continued into 2025. During that year 779 samples were taken, of which 233 were found to have failed. Fifty-six of those matters reached the ADM court, and a penalty of 11 lakh 30 thousand rupees was recovered from the guilty. Then, between January and May of 2026, the department sent 297 samples for testing, of which 65 came back as failures.
Tests That Travel to the Mysore Lab
According to Dr. Sharma, samples that fail at the district-level laboratory are forwarded to a lab in Mysore for firm confirmation of adulteration. Between 2024 and May 2026, 156 such samples were sent to the Mysore lab. Only 36 of them managed to pass, while 120 failed there as well — a sign of just how deep the problem of adulteration runs.
