Overview
- Uttarakhand’s adjudicating officer levied penalties totaling Rs 1.4 lakh after a Patanjali cow‑ghee sample failed quality tests at the state lab in Rudrapur and the National Food Laboratory in Ghaziabad.
- The order, issued in February 2022, fined Patanjali Rs 1,00,000, the distributor Rs 25,000 and the retailer Rs 15,000, according to official records recounted in recent coverage.
- The sample was drawn during a routine October 2020 inspection from Karan General Store in the Kasni area of Pithoragarh, triggering notices and a referral to the national lab in 2021.
- The National Food Laboratory’s November 2021 report corroborated the state lab’s finding that the ghee did not meet prescribed standards.
- Patanjali disputes the testing and the order, citing questions over lab accreditation, the applicability of parameters, sample expiry and a nominal RM‑value variance, and says no tribunal ruling has been issued yet.