Hyderabad: The city Police on receiving a tip-off raided two manufacturing units at Habeebnagar only to find decomposed, rotten ginger, garlic used along with dangerous chemical Titanium oxide and a lemon yellow synthetic colour powder used for the mass manufacturing of ginger-garlic paste.
Apart from the rotten material, potatoes, onions and banana pulp and locally made acids were also used in making ginger-garlic paste said DCP B. Limba Reddy,Task Force.
The task force seized 270 tins of 1kg ginger paste as well as 36 kgs of ginger paste from the units which supplied the paste across the city to many buyers specially the food catering people. It was usually supplied to hotels, small roadside joints and many times sold in markets as well.
The chemical powder is available for as less as few rupees which is sold in retail drug stores. The mineral is a naturally occurring mineral widely used as a white pigment in paint, colouring pigment in food industry and also used in cosmetics and other industry uses.
The mineral adds whiteness and brightness to products and also helps them from discoloration. It is used as an ingredient in sunscreen as it reflects ultraviolet (UV) light, most of mineral is widely used in as a pigment in paints, cosmetics, toothpastes, pharmaceuticals, paper and food.
But according to the recent research the nanoparticles of this mineral are carcinogenic to humans which can induce adverse affect on internal organs, brain and is causing nerve damage when tested on rats, it has also caused respiratory tract cancer in rats.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies titanium dioxide as a Group 2B carcinogen, which means it’s “possibly carcinogenic to humans.”
“Titanium is a heavy metal. It has known carcinogenic properties. It has already been banned in personal care products abroad. Titanium is a fine white powder that is produced naturally; it is opaque and bright, used in the manufacture of paper, rubber, paints etc. It acts as a whitener and used mainly in the paint industry. The manufacturers must have used Titanium to make the paste shine. Medical science has proved that it has the tendency to accumulate in the body and harm it irreversibly. It has a very limited elimination rate from the human body causing changes in the spine and liver,” said a senior chemical scientist, as reported in DC.