Residents of Maharashtra, especially Nagpur, Thane and Pune, need to press the caution button when buying sweets this Diwali. The state Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has seized a significant amount of adulterated ingredients, including mawa, ghee and dry fruits, from here. Of 24 lakh kg of adulterated ingredients seized since August, Nagpur leads with 22.68 lakh kg followed by Thane, from where officials seized around 72.4 kg of ingredients. Pune ranks third with a seizure of 31 kg of spurious goods.

The FDA says it has started the festive season drive, which will end in December, to curb the use of adulterated food items. The FDA conducts random testing of products or acts on tip-offs to seize these adulterated items. In the ongoing seizure, the department collected 194 samples, inspected 129 samples and seized 8,654 kg of adulterated items from Mumbai.