Aug 18, 2018
Food Safety Teams raid paneer manufacturing unit in Samrala, seizes huge cache of spurious products
LUDHIANA: Working on a tip off, Food Safety Team of Ludhiana conducted a raid at a Paneer manufacturing unit in an interior village of Samrala on Friday. Huge cache of spurious Milk and Milk Products(M&MP) were seized including 3 quintals of paneer, 90 litres of palm oil, 5 quintals of ghee, 39 empty Palm oil tins of 15 litres each, 5 sealed palm oil tins of 15 litre capacity each and 13 bags of 25kg capacity of verka skimmed milk powder and 4 bags of 25kg each of other skimmed milk powder.
Giving more details, KS Pannu, Commissioner, Food and Drugs Administration, Punjab said, "Around 9:30pm, we received an information that huge quantity of spurious paneer was being prepared in a manufacturing unit in Samrala and it was to be dispatched to market at the daybreak. So, immediately springing into action Food Safety Team of Ludhiana conducted a raid at the said premises at around 10pm. The Paneer manufacturing unit was being run from a house and when the food safety team reached there, the premises of the factory was locked from outside but the workers were working there. With the support of locals the lock was opened and a huge quantity of spurious M&MP was found."
Pannu also added, “The entire operation lasted for about 4 hours and a sizeable amount of spurious Milk and Milk Products were seized, including 3 quintals of paneer, 90 litres of palm oil, 5 quintals of ghee, 39 empty Palm oil tins of 15 litres each, 5 sealed Palm oil tins of 15 litre capacity each and 13 bags of 25 kg capacity of Verka skimmed milk powder and 4 bags of 25kg each of other skimmed milk powder."
Pannu also informed that a raid was also conducted by the department in Jalandhar and approximately 2 quintals curd, spurious desi ghee to the tune of 8 quintals and 35 packets of Skimmed milk powder were seized from the spot. In a similar inspection at Mansa 11 samples were taken including 8 samples of milk and milk products, 3 of milk, 1 of curd, 2 of khoya and two of paneer. The samples collected from all the raids have been sent for lab analysis.
‘Red labelling’ proposal put on hold; expert panel to examine plan
Food regulator Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has shelved a proposal that called for red labelling of packaged food products containing high levels of fat, sugar and
NEW DELHI: Food regulator Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has shelved a proposal that called for red labelling of packaged food products containing high levels of fat, sugar and salt, according to its CEO Pawan Kumar Agarwal. Agarwal, who was addressing a national consultation on the draft regulation organised by the CUTS International, said that while the pre-draft for the proposal was ready and sent to the Health Ministry, “there were concerns expressed by some stakeholders.”
“We have kept it on hold for the time being and a group of experts from health and nutrition background has been set up to look into the issue of labelling once again,” he said. FSSAI had come out with the draft of Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations 2018 that proposed mandatory red-label marking on such packaged food in April.
The expert panel will be headed by B Sesikeran, former director of National Institute of Nutrition, as well as the current director Hemalatha, besides Dr Nikhil Tandon. According to Agarwal, the panel will study in detail the industry’s concerns and make recommendations. “May be a little bit of tweaking (to the draft regulations) is required. We are open to it without compromising the basic directions of the labelling regulations,” Agarwal said.
Pitching for bringing in strong labelling norms at the earliest, the FSSAI CEO said it is difficult to ask consumers to change their eating habits as some eat mindlessly, while some cannot differentiate between healthy and unhealthy food products. “In this situation, I feel we can make a dent if we can address it at the supply side by asking companies to adhere to the labelling norms,” Agarwal added.
FSSAI sets up expert panel to look into draft labelling regulations
NEW DELHI, AUGUST 17
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has decided to form a three-member committee to look into the draft food labelling and display regulations. The regulations have proposed making red colour-coded labels mandatory on packaged food products which are high in fat, sugar and salt contents.
Pawan Agarwal, CEO, FSSAI, said, “The pre-draft was earlier sent to the Health Ministry for finalisation. However, industry stakeholders have expressed concerns. So we have decided to set up a a panel of experts with health and nutrition background to look into the draft regulations.” He said that front-of-the-pack labels are required to make consumers more aware about healthy and unhealthy food products. The expert panel will be led by B Sesikeran, former director of National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), and comprise current NIN director Hemalatha and AIIMS’ Nikhil Tandon.
Agarwal was speaking at a national consultation on food labelling regulations for safe and healthy food organised by CUTS International in collaboration with FSSAI.
FSSAI has, in the past, said it is open to suggestions from industry stakeholders and it will look at labelling regulations adopted by other countries across the world. The draft labelling regulations were released in April. Industry stakeholders believe these may have an adverse impact on the evolving packaged food industry.
George Cheriyan, Director, CUTS International, said India can learn from the best practices from the other countries such as Denmark , Norway and Singapore on labelling and trans-fat regulations. He said the consultation was an attempt to begin a dialogue among stakeholders on the proposed draft labelling regulations.
Recently, several companies have pledged to FSSAI’s Eat Right Movement and have made voluntary commitments to reduce salt , sugar and fat in their products. FSSAI is likely to push more and more companies to make similar voluntary commitments in the coming days.
Expert panel reviewing food labelling standards: FSSAI
Government puts on hold the draft that proposes red-labelling of packaged food products containing high levels of fat, sugar and salt
New Delhi: The government has put on hold the draft that proposes red-labelling of packaged food products containing high levels of fat, sugar and salt, FSSAI CEO Pawan Kumar Agarwal said today. In April, food safety regulator FSSAI had come out with the draft of Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations 2018 that propose mandatory red-label marking on such packaged food products.
“Our pre-draft was ready and sent to the health ministry. Since there were concerns expressed by some stakeholders, we have kept it on hold for the time being and a group of experts has been set up to look into the issue of labelling once again,” Agarwal said. He was addressing a national consultation on the draft regulation organised by the CUTS International.
The expert panel will be headed by B Sesikeran, former director of National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) as also the current director Hemalatha, besides Dr Nikhil Tandon, he said.
Food labelling regulations have remained a contentious issue in the packaged food industry, which sees them as an impediment to sales. Agarwal said the panel will study in detail the concerns of the industry and make recommendations.
“May be a little bit of tweaking (to the draft regulations) is required. We are open to it without compromising the basic directions of the labelling regulations,”Agarwal said.
Pitching for strong labelling norms at the earliest, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India CEO said it is difficult to ask consumers to change their eating habits. “We can make a dent if we can address it at the supply side by asking companies to adhere to labelling norms,” he added.
Agarwal also made it clear that FSSAI will go ahead with the labelling norms even if there is no consensus on the matter after the panel’s suggestions.
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