From plastic rice to chemicals in milk, questions over food safety have become a recurrent theme in our everyday lives. As concerns mount in the wake of recent controversies, activists say a designated authority to enforce food safety norms and keep adulteration in check is the need of the hour.
Last week, the city witnessed a video of MTC staff purporting to show plastic rice being served in their canteen. The clip, showing men in khaki bouncing small balls of rice off the walls and tables at the canteen of the Ayanavaram bus depot, spread like wildfire on social media. The footage also came close on the heels of information shared on WhatsApp regarding the seizure of alleged plastic rice in other parts of the country.
In a State where its own Dairy Development Minister came out with the shocking allegation that private milk producers were adding chemicals to their products, similar claims pertaining to adulteration of rice with plastic seemed ever more probable. So, is there really plastic in rice and sugar, and are there chemicals in milk? Could eggs be made of plastic? Was there any truth to the messages circulating on WhatsApp or were they merely old wives’ tales that no one in the position of authority was prepared to debunk?
As one scare story after another finds prominence through social media platforms, questions are asked, and sometimes answered, with knee-jerk reactions. As adulteration has long remained a tool of choice for unscrupulous traders looking to make a quick buck, only the adulterants have varied with time. Consumer activists point to the need for a proper system capable of answering these questions in a scientific manner, and wherever necessary, allaying rumours and suspicions about food safety that arise periodically among the public.
The term ‘plastic rice’ came into being after a scandal was exposed in China in 2010, in which pellets were made by mixing sweet potato powder with poor quality rice. “A resin was found to have been used for the bonding. But this was banned.
“But in India, although there have been several complaints and allegations of rice being mixed with plastic, tests conducted on so-called ‘plastic rice’ have conclusively proved that there had been no plastic element in such rice samples,” said A. C. Mohan, secretary, Federation of Tamil Nadu Rice Mill Owners and Paddy-Rice Dealers Associations.
As regards the clips showing rice balls being bounced off the walls, Mr. Mohan said that gelatine, which is found naturally in rice, could make it bouncy if rolled into balls. “Boiled rice has more of gelatine, which retains more of its germinal matter. While raw rice varieties including Basmati are not sticky, varieties grown in Tamil Nadu such as Ponni, ADT 36 and Adhisiya Ponni are more sticky than the usual boiled rice. Rubber samba and Maappilai samba are rare varieties that have even more starch and gelatin and are suitable to make kall dosai. These varieties take longer to grow (in some cases six months) and are more healthy,” he explained.
Federation president D. Thulasingam said that rice merchants were also consumers in the first place, and that they will not sell such adulterated products. “Various government agencies had taken samples and conducted tests but so far, no plastic has been found in rice anywhere in the country. Plastic cannot be cooked, it will only melt in the heat. Rice will sink in water, whereas plastic will float. Any home-maker can differentiate between boiled and raw rice by mere feel, smell and sight,” he said.
It also does not make economic sense to mix plastic with rice, he said. Plastic pellets available in the market are costlier than rice. “A kilo of plastic costs anywhere between ₹80 and ₹100, whereas rice costs ₹30-₹60 a kilo. How can someone use a costlier item to make something cheaper? Also, we have at least six months worth of stocks of rice and there is no need for importing rice, let alone ‘plastic rice’,” Mr. Thulasingam added.
R. Kathiravan, designated officer, Food Safety department, Chennai, said that 20 samples of rice were collected and sent for analysis. While 16 of them were sent to the food analysis lab at the King Institute campus in Chennai, four samples were sent to a lab in Thanjavur . “Of the 15 results received till date, there has been no evidence of any plastic content in the rice in Chennai,” he said.
Chemicals in milk
Until a few days ago, milk vendors too had to ward off such queries from consumers after State Dairy Development Minister K.T. Rajenthra Bhalaji levelled allegations against certain private milk brands, saying they were adding chemicals to milk.
In the wake of the controversy, district administrations stepped in at places such as Madurai and Coimbatore and tested milk samples submitted by the residents. In Madurai, the electronic milk adulteration tests showed that out of 217 samples taken on three different dates in the city and two other locations in the suburbs, 25 samples were found to be of sub-standard quality, while another was found to be unsafe for consumption. District Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao said that awareness was high among rural people as well.
Maheswari of Jawahar Nagar, Thirumangalam, in Madurai, said she purchased milk from a vendor who supplied it in quantities of 100 ml and 150 ml. “Since it was not branded, we decided to provide a sample of it for testing and found that it was safe to consume,” she added.
Madurai-based consumer activist Andrews pointed out that the government officials carried out tests only after the Minister for Dairy Development raised the issue of adulteration, adding that such tests should be conducted on a regular basis. “Not just milk, the officials should also carry out periodic tests on all items including oil and rice as there have been complaints of sub-standard goods coming in,” he added.
Adulteration of milk is being monitored on a monthly basis, said a senior Food Safety department official. “Of the samples we collected, only one from Madurai was found to be unsafe, as soap oil had been mixed with it. With regard to the other samples, some were found to be sub-standard — containing water, for instance, in milk, but they were not unsafe in terms of health,” he said. While sub-standard milk can attract a penalty, unsafe milk can lead to a case in court, a fine and imprisonment, he noted.
A milk industry expert said that so far, in samples lifted by the Food Safety department, only samples of unpackaged milk have been found to contain traces of detergent or soap oil.
“The soap element may have even been due to improper cleansing of utensils at homes. Private milk producers know that their customers are brand-conscious and loyal to their brands due to certain factors, the most important being quality. At times, when it comes to favoured brands, consumers won’t even bother about the cost. Companies will not compromise on quality and end up losing the loyalty of such consumers,” he said.
However, the Milk Commissionerate has stopped taking samples of milk ever since the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) stepped in and began collecting samples.
Plastic eggs scare
In the wake of the recent plastic eggs scare, acting on a State-wide directive and complaints from consumers, checks were conducted on eggs in Coimbatore district. All of the 161 samples collected in April this year were found to be safe. Samples of popular White Leghorn were tested at the government laboratory in Madurai,” said O.L.S. Vijay, designated officer, FSSAI, Coimbatore.
Adulteration not new
With plastics and chemicals prevalent in pretty much everything we use, the adulteration scare is here to stay. In the 1980’s food adulteration was something that people had just begun hearing about — it used to mean stones in rice, water in milk, sawdust in tea and brick powder in chilli powder. But all that is passé now.
Adulteration has taken on a new avatar. It now comes in the form of non-permitted colours being added to snacks like bhajji and pakoda sold on the roadsides, maida bleached with chemicals, oil-soluble red colour added to chilli powder and cheap palm oil mixed with other cooking oils to reduce the price, says G. Santhanarajan of the Consumer Association of India (CAI).
“Even the word adulteration is not to be found in the Food Safety and Standards Act. The Act talks about safe foods, sub-standard and unsafe foods. You can simply pay a fine and get off the hook unless the product is deemed unsafe. We now have to be afraid of plastics, especially those that come in the form of food packaging. Packing hot food items in plastic bags is bad for health as the heat causes the plastic to react. Everything from oil to water to pulses that we buy comes in plastic packs. But since nobody has time for anything, people don’t even bother to carry their own bags to department stores to avoid plastic bags,” he rued.
Enforcement failure
After the Food Safety and Standards Act came into force, though a separate set-up came into being to check food standards, the very same officials of various local bodies have been implementing the norms. Consumer activists feel that the department is failing at enforcement.
Nirmala Desikan, chairman and managing trustee, CAI, said that the new Act was a detailed and more comprehensive one than the one that it replaced. “There are so many things that are adulterated, but the problem is that they (officials) are not strong enough in implementing the rules. We also don’t know how many complaints it (Food Safety department) receives or how many are dealt with. The department is not transparent,” she said.
Food Safety officials have refused to provide the exact data on adulteration of milk in the State to The Hindu. Only rough figures of complaints and samples collected were provided. Each laboratory gets around 500 samples a month. Just 100 samples are collected from milk products, said a source.
Many residents have registered complaints with the Food Safety department through its WhatsApp number 9444042322. “We will increase random sampling to study the trends. The analysis is done in three days. Samples are collected within 24 hours of receipt of complaints,” said an official.
But activist T. Sadagopan is far less optimistic. “The very few checks that are done hardy matter since very few people are penalised. And those who adulterate will continue to do so. For the consumer, this would only mean unchecked adulteration leading to an adverse impact on their health.”
(With inputs from Aloysius Xavier Lopez and Zubeda Hamid in Chennai, L. Srikrishna in Madurai and Wilson Thomas in Coimbatore)
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