Gangs smuggle tobacco on trains

NIN's unscientific report on Akshaya Patra food flayed

Civil society activists and NGOs on Monday demanded that the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) withdraw its report approving the nutritional value of food supplied by the Akshaya Patra Foundation as part of the mid-day meals scheme without proper scientific assessment.

In a letter to the NIN, they expressed their dismay at the institute's "unscientific, biased and irresponsible" response to the Karnataka government request about technical inputs on nutritional adequacy, bio-availability, diet diversity, taste and food safety and hygiene by the APF.

The APF has been supplying food to 2,814 schools in Karnataka as part of the mid-day meals scheme, which aims at providing students nutritious meals containing locally and culturally relevant food.

The Karnataka government had written to the NIN and the Central Food Technical Research Institute after the APF refused to provide eggs or use onion and garlic in the food calling them "tamasic".

"Since onions and garlic are part of the traditional foods, like sambhar in Karnataka, and hence has been included as part of the menu prescribed by the state government, their non-inclusion by the APF was raised by the Karnataka State Food Commission and civil society groups," reads the letter.

While CFTRI has refused to comment, the activists said, the NIN, to their "utter shock and dismay", made sweeping statements praising the APF, without carrying out any systematic scientific study.

"No empirical data was collected on the quantity and quality of ingredients used or amount consumed and amount wasted by children to certify food supplied by the APF as nutritionally adequate. Instead, a paper menu submitted by the APF was considered as evidence to comment on an aspect of the scheme, which has nutritional impact on lakhs of children!" reads the letter.

Even more shockingly, without visiting a single school or speaking to children consuming the food, the NIN took the unwarranted liberty of commenting on the taste and safety of the food, it said and added that "flies in the face of observations" by the State Food Commission on monotony of the food supplied by the APF or media reports of children vomiting after consuming the food on some occasions.

Activists said the eagerness exhibited by the NIN to offer opinions in this case raised "serious questions" about its credibility and independence.

"In view of the NIN's history and tradition of rigorous scientific research and considering that the nutritional future of thousands of children studying in government schools and availing mid-day meals has been undermined by the unscientific report submitted by it to the Karnataka government, we urge you to withdraw the report immediately, pending a systematic field evaluation of the food being supplied by APF," they demanded in the letter.

Icemaking units put health at risk

HIGHLIGHTS

• Unauthorised icemaking units mushrooming in the district are making ice using contaminated water, possibly containing E Coli bacterium
• Though rules stipulate that every icemaker should have a reverse osmosis plant, none of the about 150 units in the district has any such plant
• Units are allegedly supplying the ice they make normally for fish traders for storage of aqua products to food and drink businesses too

Rajamahendravaram: With little oversight from the department concerned, the thriving icemaking units in the district are posing a danger to the health to the people.

As investment is not much, several units have come up in the district to cater the needs of people in the sizzling summer.

According to information, around 150 icemaking units are functioning in the district without the knowledge of food safety and control department.

Ice is in heavy demand from juice shops, soft drink parlours, soda shops, small restaurants and other summer businesses due to summer.

The icemaking units, which normally make ice using unclean water for mainly fish traders to store fish and other aqua products, are said to be supplying the same to these businesses too.

According to sources, E Coli (Escherichia coli) bacterium which is present in the the ice made of poor quality water has become a health hazard to the people after consuming foods and drinks in which the ice is used.

E Coli bacterium reduces the stamina in the body to prevent diseases making them prone to more serious infections.

The people who are not aware of these risks, ask juice vendors to add more ice in the drinks.

As per government guidelines, the ice manufacturing units should own an RO (reverse osmosis) plant and use purified water but many icemaking units have no such plants but doing good business using contaminated water.

When contacted, food safety and control department district assistant controller K Nageswara Rao said that so far they had not given any licence to any icemaking unit in the district.

The department will give licences to icemaking units after they were sent by department of industries, he said.

FDA finds 112 outlets operating sans licence

Documentation had been made mandatory for Swiggy, Zomato and others in the business.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is keeping a close watch on online food businesses and has taken several steps to ensure compliance in the state of Maharashtra. 

Mumbai: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is keeping a close watch on online food businesses and has taken several steps to ensure compliance in the state of Maharashtra.

In the last few months, the FDA has conducted raids on almost 350 online food delivery outlets and found nearly 112 out of them operating sans licences.

Many of them have been found operating out of unhygienic places. “We have filed 200 such cases against them. These actions will benefit consumers in the long run,” said state FDA commissioner Dr Pallavi Darade.

FDA officials said that they had already issued notices to Swiggy and Zomato, asking them to get their delivery partners registered as per food safety rules. Documentation had been made mandatory for Swiggy, Zomato and others.

Following the declaration of intent, the Maharashtra FDA said that if they failed to comply, online food aggregators would have to face action.

A senior FDA officer said, “Around 10,000 food delivery partners work with different online platforms, but merely a handful are registered. If found not fulfilling the guidelines especially meant for them, we have taken action against them.”

State Food and Drug Administration commissioner Darade said, “Such registration is mandatory as per food safety rules. Without it, food aggregators, all of whom have been told to take responsibility, cannot conduct business. They need to get delivery partners registered with the FDA. This will help the government raise revenue and citizens avail hygienic food. In the past, too, we have taken action against such outfits for collecting edibles from unregistered food business operators. Cases were also filed.”

HC directs food safety dept to act on plea over adulterated edible oil

Madurai: The Madurai bench of the Madras high court has directed the commissioner of food safety to consider a petition by an advocate from Sivaganga district, alleging adulteration of edible oil by manufacturers and vendors in Singampunari town panchayat and take appropriate action. 

M Balaji, the advocate in his petition stated that he has forwarded several complaints to the food safety commissioner to take action against edible oil manufacturers, wholesale and retail vendors for selling unlabelled oil in improperly packed packages in Singampunari. 

The petitioner had also sought for disciplinary action against the food safety officer for failure to discharge his duty as per the Food Safety and Standard Act, 2006. 

According to the petitioner, there are oil mills and vendors in the panchayat with a yearly turnover of several crores of rupees in the business.

“Some money-minded persons are indulging in selling adulterated edible oils by simply mixing the low price oils with high priced ones irrespective of varieties,” the petitioner stated and added that he made several written complaints and sent petitions through WhatsApp, but no action was taken. 

When the petition came up for hearing, the additional government pleader submitted that the petitioner’s concerns would be looked into.

Recording the submissions, a division bench of justice K Kalyanasundaram and justice R Tharani, without going into the merits of the matter, directed the commissioner of food safety to consider the petition and take appropriate action purely on merits and in accordance with law, within a period of three months.