Is your ice blue? Stop! Maharashtra to have ‘colored ice’ for industrial purpose only

Mumbai, April 5: In this scorching summer, we crave behind those Kalakhattas! Freezing, chilling ice-water, golas, lemonades and many more! We have heard enough about the ice cubes that are used in it are of disgusting quality. Yes, that is true, the ice which is often used to store medicines, dead bodies etc. are used up by the street vendors! 

To regulate this use, the Food and Drug Administration of Maharashtra Government has directed the manufacturers to use blue colour in manufacturing industrial ice.

We normally have two kinds of ice: Edible ice and Industrial ice. Edible ice is which we can eat safely while industrial ice is used in preserving medicines in cement factories and mortuaries as well.

A senior official from the FDA said, “We have directed all the manufacturers of industrial ice to use only Indigo Carmine or Brilliant Blue FCF [as per regulation 3.1.2(4) of the Food Safety and Standards Regulations, 2011]. They are to use this colour while manufacturing industrial ice until the ice gets the minimum colour and up to 10 parts per million (ppm). Thus, contaminated ice will now be identifiable and necessary action will be taken against the offenders, depending on their offence.”

Industrial ice is comparatively cheaper and hence street vendors adopt it as the edible ice to cut down the manufacturing costs for their profits.