Gobi Manchurian Creates Stir In Goa After Council Bans Vendors From Selling Dish | Here's Why

Gobi Manchurian, the dish with fiery red hues and tones of sweet and spice, has stirred a controversy among food authorities. The fusion classic, already criticised for its synthetic colour and hygiene standards, faced further backlash when Goa’s Mapusa Municipal Council banned it from stalls and eateries.

During the Bogdeshwar temple feast last month, the Councilor Tarak Arolkar led the initiative of banning this popular dish, a Times Now report said.

The council openly endorsed its decision, terming the dish to be a culinary insignificance.

This comes amid the trend of several public bodies opposing Gobi Manchurian. Previously, during the 2022 Vasco Saptah Fair at Shree Damodar Temple, the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) instructed the Mormugao Municipal Council to regulate the sale of this dish due to hygienic concerns.

This was because, the FDA had fund unclean conditions at Gobi Manchurian stalls during its inspections at other Goan fairs.

The reasons for opposing Gobi Manchurian range from hygiene problems, synthetic colouring to questionable sauces and use of laundry power.

MMC chairperson Priya Mishal said that the primary reason is “hygiene concerns”, the report added. Mishal said that the vendors, who make Gobi Manchurian, work in unclean environments and use synthetic colours to bring that fiery red hue to the dish, which ultimately led to the dish being banned.

At the time of giving permissions to these food stalls, the vendors were clearly told to refrain from selling Gobi Manchurian.

However, in opposition to this claim, a senior Food Safety Officer (FSO) at the FDA said that the vendors were also pulled up for using bad quality sauces that are not healthy for consumption.

The officer claimed that the vendors put quality sauce on display but use inferior ones for making Gobi Manchurian. “They use some kind of power in the flour and cornstarch in the batter so that after deep frying, the cauliflower florets remain crispy for a long time,” the officer was quoted as saying by the Times of India.

The vendors slammed the council’s decision of coming down on all of them and raised a question that “because of a few individuals, why is the municipality targeting all of us?”

The officer compared the the substance’s colour with that of ‘reetha‘, which is used for washing clothes. Raising a question on the prices, the FSO asked whether one wonders why they “pay Rs 70-100 for one plate in restaurants and Rs 30-40 in zatras?” This is the reason, he added.