Noida (Uttar Pradesh) [India], February 17 : A retail shop and a primary warehouse were sealed by the Gautam Buddh Nagar police in connection with food poisoning across multiple residential societies in Greater Noida. The action was initiated after several residents of Supertech Ecovillage-3, Royal Court, and Himalaya Pride societies reported severe illness after consuming meals prepared with a specific batch of buckwheat flour.
Police Commissionerate, Gautam Buddh Nagar, said, The Police sealed a shop in the Royal Court Society and a warehouse supplying the particular batch of kuttu (buckwheat) flour, following information that several residents from three societies, Supertech Ecovillage-3 Society, Royal Court Society, and Himalaya Pride Society in Greater Noida fell ill after consuming meals made of kuttu (buckwheat) flour. Four people, including the warehouse owner, were detained.
Earlier this month, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Raghav Chadha, in a speech during the Zero Hour of the Rajya Sabha budget session, described food adulteration in India as a "raging health crisis".
He stated that Indians are consuming food items that would not even be fed to pets in other countries, raising serious concerns about widespread food adulteration, calling it a "raging health crisis" affecting children, the elderly, and pregnant women. Speaking under the chairmanship of Vice President CP Radhakrishnan, Chadha highlighted that food items in the market are being adulterated with unsafe chemicals, harmful additives, and misleading labels."Under the guise of fake 'purity' labels, poison is being sold openly. Milk, spices, edible oils, packaged foods, and beverages contain unsafe additives, high saturated fats, sugar, and salt while claiming to be 'good for health' or 'energy boosters,'" he said.
He highlighted concerns about food safety, citing widespread contamination and specific examples of adulterants in milk, vegetables, spices, sweets, and poultry.
Chadha gave examples of contamination in daily essentials: "milk containing urea; vegetables injected with oxytocin; paneer with starch and caustic soda; ice cream with detergent powder; fruit juices with artificial colors; edible oil mixed with machine oil; garam masala adulterated with brick powder and sawdust; tea with synthetic color; chicken and poultry injected with anabolic steroids; honey diluted with sugar syrup; and sweets made with vanaspati instead of desi ghee."
He warned that these adulterated products pose severe health risks, including dizziness, heart failure, infertility, and even cancer. Citing research, Chadha said, "71% of milk samples tested contained urea, and 64% contained neutralisers such as sodium bicarbonate. Between 2014-15 and 2025-26, one in every four food samples tested in India was found to be adulterated.