Every Indian kid especially those born in the 90s or early 2000s must have eaten Cotton Candies. Apart from the extra sweet taste, Cotton Candy's appealing colours and its feature to evaporate in the mouth made it every children's favorite. However, Tamil Nadu Government on Saturday banned Cotton Candy from the state. Therefore, neither the manufacturing nor the sale of cotton candy is allowed in Tamil Nadu. Now, the question arises why did Tamil Nadu ban Cotton Candy? Below is everything you need to know-
Cotton Candy ban reason
Talking about the Cotton Candy ban reason, the age-old sweet has been prohibited along with other food items with colour additives. To be precise, cotton candy has been banned due to the presence of a toxic textile dye, Rhodamine B, which could be harmful to people’s health especially cancer. Health Minister Ma Subramanian reportedly said that the decision was taken after the results of tests conducted by a government lab confirmed the presence of the textile dye.
The decision comes days after the Puducherry government imposed a ban on the candy, which is very popular among children, contending that they were “very harmful” to kids. Since the candies that were sold in Puducherry were manufactured in Tamil Nadu, the state government sent samples of the food items for testing.
"The test result says Rhodamine B is present in the cotton candy and food items with colour additives. According to the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, this is an unsafe food with poor standards,” health Minister Subramanian was quoted saying. Rhodamine B is a chemical compound and a dye which is used in textiles.
Notably, a few months back, Mapusa a Goan city (Goa), banned Gobi munchurian from booths and feasts due to worries about artificial coloring and hygiene. Another bizarre Gobi Manchurian ban reason was using dodgy sauces and washing powders as the ingredients. A report quoted MMC chairperson Priya Mishal who said, "The councillors opined that such vendors operate in unhygienic conditions and use synthetic colours for making gobi manchurian and that is what has prompted us to ban the sale of this dish."