Srinagar, Sept. 2 -- Ban on ten ghee batches across Jammu and Kashmir is not a technical notice buried in regulatory files. It is a blunt warning that unsafe food has already entered homes, eroding the most basic expectation of trust between consumer and market. Laboratory findings confirmed adulteration, misbranding and deviation from prescribed standards. People who paid substantial amounts for what they believed was pure ghee discovered foreign vegetable fats and failed safety tests. This is not a lapse; it is a breach.

When contamination is detected in ghee, a staple in kitchens, the issue is not confined to one brand or one district. It exposes systemic weakness in monitoring and enforcement. However, the prohibition shows that unsa...