Delhi Threw Out 922 Kilograms of Rasgulla, Milk Cake, and Khoya
Over the weekend of October 24, inspectors destroyed rasgulla in Nihal Vihar and spoiled khoya at Mori Gate. The announcement names those two Delhi markets.
- diwali
- mithai
- delhi
- food-safety
On Saturday, Delhi’s Food Safety Department threw out 265 kilograms of rasgulla in Nihal Vihar, a neighborhood in west Delhi. Rasgulla is chhena, fresh cheese, boiled in sugar syrup. With the rasgulla went 80 kilograms of milk cake, 45 kilograms of chhena, and 12 kilograms of grated coconut. The teams walked into 13 places, including rasgulla units with no licence, looked at how the food was made and stored, and destroyed what they found.
The khoya market at Mori Gate, near Kashmere Gate, was the other stop that weekend. Inspectors found about 370 kilograms of khoya and 150 kilograms of chhena that had been left sitting. It had spoiled, and it smelled foul. Khoya, also called mawa, is milk cooked until it is thick enough to set into burfi or milk cake. Once that base has turned, the sweet made from it has turned too.
On Sunday, October 25, the office of Rekha Gupta, Delhi’s chief minister, added the two piles and called the total 922 kilograms. She told the department to keep making surprise checks through the festival. Diwali is November 8. The labs are not back yet. Nihal Vihar sent 14 samples, and Mori Gate sent three of the khoya. Until those reports are public, what the department has actually said is that the khoya had gone off, and that the rasgulla came out of unlicensed units after a look at the rooms.
The announcement names those two markets. A box from a shop in the United States or Canada was not in the pile. The clock on a milk sweet still runs wherever it was made.
Ask which day it was made
In 2020, FSSAI, India’s food regulator, published a note that counts freshness from the day a sweet is made. It calls the list a guide. Rasgulla is supposed to live in the refrigerator and be finished within two days. Milk cake, peda, and plain burfi get about four. Kaju katli, the cashew sweet, gets about a week. Besan laddus, made from chickpea flour, and chikki, a brittle, are the ones that can last closer to a month. A warm room or a loose lid will use those days up faster.
Four days on milk cake does not mean it can sit out. The same note says milk sweets spoil faster than flour sweets, and it wants the two-day sweets in the fridge. The National Dairy Development Board, the agency that works with India’s dairy cooperatives, puts khoya at two or three days on the counter and about a week once it is refrigerated. Smell it before you buy a big box. Fresh khoya smells like cooked milk. Sour means put it back.
Ask which day the milk pieces were made, before the box is tied. If the counter cannot say, send kaju katli or a besan laddu to anyone who will not eat it tonight, and buy the rasgulla closer to the meal. A lot of the gifting starts on Dhanteras, Friday, November 6. A rasgulla you pick up today will not be the one you want to hand over on Friday.
Get it into the fridge
FoodSafety.gov, the U.S. food-safety site, says perishable food should be refrigerated within two hours, and within one hour if the air is above 90°F. A closed car on a warm afternoon gets there. The fridge should be at 40°F or colder, 4°C. The printed gift box will not hold that. Put the milk sweets in an insulated bag with a frozen gel pack, and make sure someone can move them into a fridge when they arrive. If the box rode around on the passenger seat while other errands got done, throw it out. Do not hand it to anyone.
Syrup does not keep a rasgulla safe on the counter. FSSAI still wants that sweet cold, in a covered box, so it does not take on the smell of whatever else is in the fridge. Kaju katli and a dry besan laddu can stay in a tin, in a cool room, away from the milk pieces. A packed box with a date on the label is easier to judge than sweets scooped off a tray. If a piece smells sour, it is done.
Milk and ghee are also costing more this festival. Read Why Diwali Sweets Cost More This Year. For a tray that is not racing a two-day clock, start with the Diwali Snack Platter.