The Food Safety Department of Karnataka has launched a state-wide crackdown on several street food vendors selling Gobi Manchurian and Panipuri. Gobi manchurian is also banned in Goa. Recently, a unanimous resolution was passed banning the sale of Gobi Manchurian at roadside stalls at the Bodgeshwar temple fair in Mapusa, and action was taken against the stalls selling it despite the ban. It is necessary to take such action consistently. The reason why Karnataka is taking this statewide action is that in the last five months, the Food Safety Department has found illegal use of cancer causing colours in food by the food business operators. For this, the Food Safety Department has collected as many as 4,000 food samples from different stalls for inspection. There have been many complaints of people suffering from vomiting, diarrhea and other health problems after eating some of the food available at these stalls. Hence, since March, gobi manchurian, cotton candy and chicken kebab have been tested and three orders have been issued banning the use of artificial hazardous colours. According to Karnataka Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao, violators can face up to seven years in jail and a fine of up to Rs 10 lakh.
The vendors were found using artificial colouring agents tetrazine, sunset yellow, rhodamine B and brilliant blue. According to officials of the Food Safety Department, these agents can cause cancer or cause diabetes, kidney failure and other complications. Rhodamine B, used to give red colour, is commonly used as an artificial dye for textiles. Exposure to it may cause eye damage and respiratory tract irritation. Rhodamine B is usually found at small roadside vendors in small towns. Small sellers may not know that this colour can be harmful, as the effects are not immediately visible. So, they may ask for red at the store without knowing what the effects are. It is used illicitly in preparations such as gobi manchurian, potato wedges, butter chicken, pomegranate juice, mini ice-cream or cotton candies. Tests conducted by the Karnataka government found artificial colour in 107 out of 171 gobi manchurian samples and 15 out of 25 cotton candy samples. Based on these findings, an order was issued banning the use of these artificial colours, including rhodamine B, in gobi manchurian and cotton candy.
Gobi manchurian is fried cauliflower (gobi) florets tossed in a manchurian red chilli masala sauce. Gobi manchurian is made in a very unhygienic manner along roadside stalls. It poses a health hazard. The reason why gobi manchurian is banned in Goa is that to keep the cauliflower crisp, the sellers add a substandard sauce made from synthetic dyes, ajinomoto and reetha powder used in shampoos and detergents, which are very harmful to health. Most of the vendors selling gobi manchurian at the stalls are not natives of Goa. According to some, gobi manchurian is a vegetarian version of chicken manchurian, a dish believed to have been invented by Nelson Wang in the 1970s. Until then, most Chinese restaurants in India were run by third-generation Chinese from Calcutta, who had never been to the East. He served a very mild type of food which was never found in India. Chicken manchurian, a dish made with soy sauce and spices, was made in the 1970s to cater to Indians who wanted a spicy Chinese taste. Paneer manchurian was experimented in Delhi. But in the South, gobi manchurian was the preferred option, as South Indians don’t like paneer as much as Punjabis do. Thus, gobi manchurian probably came on the menu sometime in the 1980s. It is especially popular in the South.
Gobi manchurian is an Indian creation, just like what Indians eat as Chinese food. But roadside stall holders started selling it at cheap prices to attract poor customers. And to afford it, they started using cheap and dangerous synthetic dyes. It was high time the Health Minister of Karnataka took serious note of this. Because the dyes used in such foods are slow-burning toxins that invite diseases like cancer. Therefore, a punishment of up to seven years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10 lakh is imposed. It is hoped that similar action will be taken in Goa also.