Tripura confiscates ‘plastic’ rice

Agartala: After artificial eggs, the Tripura administration has launched investigation into the sale of ‘plastic rice’ – a synthetic invention allegedly by China, and introduced in markets at a low cost.
Longtarai valley sub-divisional administration of Dhalai district has seized at least six packets of such rice suspecting them plastic made from a market of Manughat last night while cooked rice of a bigger quantity was also detained from a hotel for testing.
The rice is mainly used by hotels.
Sub Divisional Magistrate of Longtarai valley S C Saha said that the administration was informed by the audit team which went for lunch to a hotel near the office of the Block Development Officer (BDO), Manu, and found the rice very crunchy in each bite, thus creating problem in swallowing.
The hotel owners did not convince them and similar complaints came from other customers.
The officials of food and civil supplies department, BDOs office and others raided the hotel and seized a large quantity of cooked rice.
Later, based on the information regarding rice procurement from local market the officials raided a shop and confiscated six bags of such rice around 600 kg.
Both the cooked and uncooked rice were sent to food testing laboratory, Saha stated adding that there is no need to panic until the laboratory reports come. (UNI)