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While drooling over sweets, beware of pink colour: Ludhiana health officials
The Ludhiana health officials have banned the use of pink colour in sweets, as it has been established to be a carcinogen, but the practice is still going on unabated across the district
Come Diwali, sweetmeat shops across the city are laden with eye-catching delicacies of all shapes, colours and varieties. However, those favouring the colour pink, when it comes to sweets, may be doing so to the detriment of their health, officials have said.
The health department has banned the use of pink colour in sweets, as it has been established to be a carcinogen, but the practice is still going on unabated across the district. On Thursday, the health department teams destroyed 256kg of pink-coloured sweets, which primarily constituted cham-chams and rasgullas.
As per district health officer, Dr Dinesh Garg, while yellow and green colouring has been permitted, pink has been banned. “We have formed separate teams to carry out inspections at processing units. While four teams were formed for the city, one team each is scouting sweet shops in Khanna, Samrala, Piyal, Doraha, Machhiwara and Jodhan.
The teams also collected 70 samples from their respective areas and sent them for testing, while rasing awareness among locals and confectioners.
A sweet maker, on condition of anonymity, said, “The use of pink colour in ‘cham cham’ has been taking place for ages. This is the first I am hearing of it being toxic to health. Besides, customers prefer coloured sweets over all others.”
District Health Officer Dr Rajesh Garg said, “This particular colour is stated as carcinogenic and banned by the government. He also asked people to make sure the chocolates they were purchasing were not expired and had been stored at the recommended temperature.”
