Jul 15, 2019
Midday meals left 900 children ill
Food for thought: The HRD Ministry has issued guidelines to all States and UT’s for hygiene in school kitchens.
The HRD Ministry has received 35 complaints for substandard food since 2016
More than 900 children were reported ill across the country with zero fatalities due to the consumption of mid-day meals in the past three years, according to officials of the Human Resource Development Ministry.
The Ministry had received 35 complaints from 15 States and Union Territories (UTs) regarding substandard food quality in the same period.
“A total number of 930 children were reported ill and none of them died after eating such food in the country in the last three years and current year. The overall responsibility for providing cooked and nutritious midday meals to eligible children lies with State governments,” a senior HRD ministry official said.
The Midday Meal Scheme comes under the HRD Ministry’s Department of School Education and Literacy.
Respective State governments were requested to furnish action-taken reports (ATRs) in the matter, he said.
“As per the reports received, actions such as issuing warning against the official responsible, terminating the contract of NGOs concerned and organisations, initiating criminal proceedings and imposing penalties against the defaulting persons (were taken),” the official said.
The HRD Ministry has also issued guidelines on quality, safety and hygiene in school-level kitchens.
“The guidelines provide instructions on procuring AGMARK quality items for preparation of midday meals, tasting of meals by two or three adult members of the school management committee, including at least one teacher, before serving to children,” the official said.
Say bye to big, fat Delhi weddings: New policy will keep tabs on food wastage, guest list, venue size
The policy which was framed under the directions of the Supreme Court has to be notified this month.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Policy says surplus food must be distributed to the underprivileged via NGOs
- Venue operators will have to pay hefty penalties for violations
- Limit on number of guests as per the size of venue, parking space
The policy drafted by the Delhi government to keep a check on the wastage of food at social functions in the national capital will likely be notified this month.
Sources told The Times of India that the policy which was framed under the directions of the Supreme Court has to be notified this month.
The Delhi government drafted the policy for holding social functions in March, which puts a cap on the number of guests, after the Supreme Court expressed its anguish over wastage of food at the events in the capital.
The Chief Secretary constituted a committee of four officers, including Principal Secretaries of Urban Development and Health, Chief Executive Officer, Delhi Jal Board and Member Secretary, Delhi Pollution Control Committee, to draft the policy.
The draft policy has already been approved by the Supreme Court appointed monitoring committee, the report said.
Surplus food must be distributed to the underprivileged via NGOs
According to the draft policy, all organisers and caterers will have to register themselves with NGOs to manage the surplus and leftover food for distribution among the underprivileged.
"The caterer should make proper arrangements to handover fresh surplus and leftover food to these NGOs," said the Draft 'Policy for Holding Social Functions in Hotels, Motels and Low-Density Residential Area (LDRA) in National Capital Territory of Delhi'.
The owner, organiser, and the caterer must have the necessary permissions including FSSAI license from Delhi's Department of Food Safety, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to run their kitchens or to sell or serve prepared food for the guest and the consumer.
"They should be registered with some NGO to manage surplus/leftover food by distributing the same among underprivileged. The caterer should make proper arrangements to handover fresh surplus and leftover food to these NGOs.
The food preparation should be according to the ceiling of the number of guests as per prescribed capacity of the motel and LDRA. The number of guests cannot exceed the guest limit approved by the Urban Local Body (ULB) for that function site," it said.
"If the food is surplus due to lower turnout of the guest and resultant less consumption, then it shall be the responsibility of organiser of the social function to remove that food from the social function site, immediately after the completion of the duration of that social function," it says.
The Commissioner Food Safety shall ensure that the above conditions are strictly followed; any violation thereof would invite action from the deployed officers by the Commissioner Food Safety, the draft policy reads.
The rules will be enforced by periodical inspections, which shall be conducted by officers of various state stakeholder agencies.
Venue operators to pay hefty penalties for violations
The maximum number of guests will be the number obtained by dividing the area of the venue by 1.5 sqm or by multiplying total number of cars that can be parked by four, the TOI report said.
"Further, officers of respective ULB will conduct random or complaint-based inspection. The violations would be noted with proofs by the inspecting officers without the disrupting the function. In the event of violation of any of the conditions, the penalty would be imposed against violators under specific act/rules/orders."
Hefty penalties have been laid for operators of the venues, not the host, for violations. Operators will have to pay Rs 5 lakh for first offence, Rs 10 lakh for second and Rs 15 lakh for the third or any subsequent offence.
Restrictions on venue space
"The capacity of the space should be determined by multiplying the total number of car parking available by four or by means the number of persons obtained by dividing the gross floor area of the premises by occupant load factor at 1.5 sqm, whichever is less," says the document.
It said adding that the total number of days on which a social function can be organised are restricted to 120 days in authorized/approved spaces.
The draft also said that motels and LDRA should be constructed as per sanctioned building plan.
"Minimum area of LDRA must be equals or more than 2.5 acres. Only such Motel and LDRA houses should be permitted to hold social functions which have proper access to the road from a main road (60 ft wide or more) and the LDRA should not be located at a road which ends in a dead end," it said.
"Further, in view of Motel Policy of Ministry of Tourism 1995, policy for holding social functions in Farmhouses of Government of NCT of Delhi, Master Plan 2021(MPD 2021), amendments in MPD-2021 notified in 2013, a comprehensive policy was required to be drafted," an official said.
Functions must meet pollution norms
"Accordingly, the committee after consultation with all stakeholders drafted the policy keeping in mind concerns of Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) and Supreme Court such as stop the use of perennially installed semi-permanent pandals, nuisance of parking on outside road of the venue, safety of guests and general public, stop the misuse of scarce resources like water and stop any kind of pollution or degradation of Environment," the official said.
KFC outlet fined Rs 5,000 for ‘lack of cleanliness in kitchen’
Dehradun: Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) and the state food safety department, in a joint operation on Saturday, conducted a raid on an outlet of fast food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) situated at Rajpur Road and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 for “poor cleanliness in the kitchen and premises.” The food safety department has also collected food samples from the outlet which have been sent to a drug testing laboratory in Rudrapur.
Speaking to TOI, municipal health officer Dr RK Singh said that the raid was undertaken under the leadership of Ramesh Singh, food safety inspector, Dehradun. “The outlet was picked up on a random basis for inspection as part of a routine drive to ensure that cleanliness standards are being followed by eateries in the city. However, we found that the outlet wasn’t disposing food waste properly for which we imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on them,” he said.
Further course of action against the outlet will be determined on the basis of the sample test results, which are expected to come within two weeks, the official added.
“The outlet’s staff alleged that they get non-vegetarian food items delivered from New Delhi but failed to produce the pay receipts and the licence required for the same,” Dr Singh said.
When queried about the matter, an employee of the outlet who requested not to be identified denied that there were any cleanliness issues. “We often take our customers for a kitchen tour, so how can we let our kitchen remain dirty? It was just a miscommunication that happened. The issue was actually pertaining to the garbage disposal slip that is filled by the DMC’s garbage pick-up workers. Also, we will produce the documents related to the procurement of non-vegetarian food items on Monday. Some of the pay slips were not in our direct possession when the raid took place,” he said.
Last week, the food safety department had also filed a case against three prominent bakeries in the city, in the additional district magistrate court as the food samples collected from the bakeries were found to be substandard.
“We had also conducted raids on some milk dairies in Patel Nagar on Thursday and their food samples, too, were sent to the Rudrapur lab,” Ramesh Singh told TOI.
Rise of food delivery apps and the need to strengthen regulation
In 2018, Maharashtra FDA had raided about 350 food outlets in Mumbai listed on food delivery platforms such as Swiggy, Zomato, Uber Eats and Foodpanda, among others
There are no two thoughts about stringent regulation of food and medicine as both go directly into the body and can cause havoc to a person’s health if their quality and hygiene standards do not meet a certain level.
Indian drug regulation is separate story, which is for a later day. Let's discuss food for now.
In 2018, the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had raided about 350 food outlets in Mumbai listed on food delivery platforms such as Swiggy, Zomato, Uber Eats and Foodpanda, among others.
The results were shocking as around one-third of them had not registered with the authority.
To be sure, online food delivery platforms have to verify the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) license of the food outlet listed on their food platform. The presence of so many unregistered food outlets indicate, either it is a case of poor oversight or the outlets are gaming the system.
Even the registered outlets were not any impressive. Around 74 percent of the eateries were found serving food from kitchens with unhygienic conditions.
The water used for cooking was not tested, no pest controls were done, no periodic health check-up reports of people cooking food, poor sanitation, there was lack of cleanliness and ventilation in the kitchens.
It was found that some of the restaurants are cooking food out of makeshift shacks with appalling hygiene.
The problem is not restricted to Mumbai alone. As many as 10,500 restaurants have been de-listed by food delivery platforms, after they were found to be unregistered or unhygienic, according to FSSAI.
Pallavi Darade, Commissioner of Food Safety, FDA Maharashtra at a recent conference said that the consumers are more bothered about the discounts, packaging and delivery time of the food, than important things like where it is made and how it is made.
With more people, especially millennials, are relying on online food delivery applications, it has become increasingly important that we have a robust audit system in place to check the quality and hygiene of the food being served.
There is no doubt that online food delivery companies have given new lease of life to the food industry. There are proliferation of eateries of all sizes. However, we cannot allow operators to play with the lives of the people by cutting corners.
It is unfair to completely blame the online food delivery companies. The government is also responsible. The government must strengthen surveillance and increase the number of food inspectors. For instance, Maharashtra has a shortage of 300 food inspectors. The same would be the case with the rest of the country.The government also needs to curb corruption involved in issuance of licenses or getting off the hook easily when caught. The government can work with online food delivery companies and restaurant bodies to come up with mechanisms to increase surveillance and weed out bad players.
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