CHENNAI: Two days after an eight-year-old girl from Cuddalore district died after consuming a bottle of soft drink, the food safety and drugs administration has seized from Chennai more than 1,500 bottles of the drink belonging to the same batch of bottling.
The Kancheepuram food safety department, where the soft drink manufacturing unit is located, has recommended the state government to recall bottles of the soft drink with batch number AH 46 L4 with manufacturing date 23-01-2014.
In Chennai, food safety officials conducted raids at 136 retail shops in Vadapalani, Tondiarpet, Anna Nagar, Broadway and Egmore, and found 600ml PET bottles of the drink with the same batch number and manufacturing date.
District food safety officer S Lakshmi Narayan said they have seized 1,556 such bottles from various retail shops and distributors across the city. "We have stopped sales of the batch. We have collected five samples of the drink which would be tested at the food analysis laboratory," he said. However, officials are clueless on the remaining PET bottles carrying the same batch number and manufacturing date.
The draft regulations on 'food recall procedure' by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) mandates each food business operator to maintain distribution records like name and address of supplier, date of purchasing and delivery, batch code, pack size, brand name, date of manufacture and 'best before' date, for one year after the shelf life and expected use of the product. It also says the food business operator shall stop distribution, production of the food under recall, without waiting for the state authority to act.
Pradip Chakraborty, director, product approval, FSSAI told TOI that an expert committee is working on a draft of regulations on the 'food recall procedure.' "The Food Safety act was implemented in 2011. Proper infrastructure and other mechanism under the Act are yet to be in place in the country,' he said, adding that action could be taken on the soft drink maker only for contamination.
R Desikan, consumer activist and founder trustee of Consumer Association of India (CAI) said soft drink manufactures continue to violate rules. "The manufactures should be held responsible for problems caused by consumption of the product," he said. A spokesman of the soft drink manufacturer said the company would reply on Thursday.
Complaints related to food safety can be made by calling 044-23813095 or mailing to commrfssa@gmail.com.
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