Nepalese authorities on Sunday confiscated 90 cargo containers loaded with products of Dabur Nepal bound for India from the Sirsiya dry port in Birgunj district.

Birgunj is a major industrial city of Nepal where Dabur Nepal - a subsidiary of Dabur India - has its production unit.

A team of anti-graft body, Commission for the Abuse of Authority (CIAA), confiscated the containers and begun an investigation after a tip-off that 24 containers allegedly had packaged juice past sell-by dates.

Commission Deputy Superintendent of Police Himalaya Shrestha said the CIAA was looking into the quality and expiry dates of the seized products.

"Details can be divulged when we complete our investigation," Shrestha added.

Dabur's clearing agent Laxmi Narayan Sharma told the media that the CIAA had confiscated 90 containers that were meant for export by the rail route to India.

Meanwhile, another CIAA team reached Dabur Nepal factory in Tokani, Rampur, to take stock of products there.

Both the CIAA and Dabur were yet to state their respective positions on the issue on Sunday afternoon.

The move came even as major disruptions in food and fuel imports across its southern border with India have severely affected Nepal's supplies and caused a worrying rise in food prices, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said. 

The disruptions are the consequence of the four-month-old agitation in the Nepali Terai by the Madhesis and the ethnic groups against discriminatory provisions of the country's new Constitution, which was promulgated on September 20.

A border blockade to protest Nepal's new constitution began in September. Cross-border trade has slowed to a trickle, causing acute food and fuel shortage in the landlocked Himalayan nation.

"With Nepal heavily dependent on imports, especially from India, severe shortages are now being felt in local markets. The cost of some basic food staples, such as cooking oil, rice, lentils, sugar and salt have soared in recent weeks as supplies dwindle," the UN agency said.

"If trade remains restricted and food prices continue to rise, a serious humanitarian crisis will be hard to avoid," said David Kaatrud, WFP Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific.

"People are struggling to feed their families as the cost of food rises beyond their grasp. Coming so soon after the recent earthquake, this crisis could severely test people's ability to cope, and may lead to an increase in malnutrition," he added.

On average, the prices of lentils, pulses and cooking oil have increased by more than 30 percent since August and over 50 percent since last year.

In remote areas, including parts of the country worst hit by the April 25 earthquake and aftershocks, the price of food commodities has increased even further, doubling in some cases.

The price of fuel has sky-rocketed across the country. The cost of refilling a cylinder of cooking gas has increased from 1,500 Nepali rupees ($14.00) before the blockade to between 8,000 and 11,000 rupees ($75 and $102) presently -- an increase of as much as 630 percent.