ISLAMABAD, June 16: A large quantity of ‘acid-soaked’ ginger has been dumped in the fruit and vegetable market here and being openly sold in weekly bazaars and other markets. Market sources said on Friday that a ban imposed on washing ginger with acid and its sale remained to be strictly enforced. They said that a large quantity of such ginger had again been dumped in godowns. Officials of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Administration inspected these godowns two days ago and said that they were empty.

An employee of a vegetable trader told this reporter that his employer was involved in the business of processing ginger with acid but after the imposition of ban he stopped it. However, he said that a consignment of hundreds of sacks of white ginger that had arrived from Karachi was kept in his godown.

Similarly, sacks of white ginger were being offloaded from a container parked in front of another godown in the market.

A senior official of the ICT Administration said that ginger, turned white after treatment with acid, was available in markets. The processed root spice was also available in three Friday bazaars in the city.

The official said samples of white ginger had been sent to the National Institute of Health for chemical analysis.

The official said some vegetable traders involved in the malpractice had gone underground.