The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has sealed a Kalupur shop and seized 170 packets of suspected fake silver foil after an undercover purchase failed a purity test, extending a food-safety investigation that began with foil-coated biscuits sold from a handcart in the Memco area.
The shop, H M Warakhwala, sells gold and silver foil used to decorate sweets. According to AMC officials cited by the Times of India, health inspectors traced the foil on the biscuits to the Kalupur outlet before sending an inspector into the shop posing as a customer. The silver foil purchased during the operation also failed a rapid purity test.
Officials said 170 packets were found on the premises. Each packet contained 10 leaves and was being sold for Rs 250, putting the value of the seized stock at Rs 42,500. The material will now be analysed at the public food laboratory, which will determine its composition through further testing.
The shop also stocked original gold foil, with 10 leaves priced at Rs 1,000. AMC officials said a rapid test indicated that the gold foil was pure, but those stocks will also be sent to the laboratory for confirmation. The food business operator was unable to provide purchase bills or details about where the silver foil had been sold, officials said.
The action followed a rapid test on foil-coated biscuits sold from a handcart in Memco. The test indicated that the foil was not made from real silver, prompting investigators to identify the source of the material. The episode places the focus not only on retailers but also on the documentation and traceability of decorative foil entering Ahmedabad’s sweets and food market.
The corporation had carried out a wider check ahead of Rakshabandhan on August 25, testing kaju katli from 22 establishments for foil purity. During that exercise, a rapid test at Shree Kaniyalal Mawawala in Kalupur found that the material presented as silver foil contained other metals, and the unit was sealed. AMC officials also found that the kaju katli stock came from a sweets factory operating from a house in a Gujarat Housing Board colony in Bapunagar.
The latest seizure remains subject to laboratory analysis. The next formal findings will establish whether the rapid-test result is confirmed and may clarify the supply chain and regulatory action connected to the seized foil.
