Hyderabad: Telangana stands as the second-highest state in food adulteration cases among southern states, according to data spanning 2021 to September 2024, shared by Union minister Prataprao Jadhav, minister of state for health and family welfare. Tamil Nadu leads in food adulteration across the south, while Uttar Pradesh ranks first nationally.
The data reveals that out of 15,702 food samples tested in Telangana during this period, 2,387 samples were found to be adulterated, amounting to approximately 15% of the total. This means that 15 out of every 100 food samples analyzed violated the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) guidelines.
Tamil Nadu reported a higher adulteration rate, with 22 out of every 100 samples (22.59%) deemed contaminated, based on 15,034 adulterated samples from 66,536 tested. Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh recorded a contamination rate of 9% (8.82%), with 1,617 adulterated samples out of 18,333 analyzed. Kerala revealed 13% (13.02%) of samples were tainted, while Karnataka registered the lowest adulteration rate in the south at 6% (5.74%).