Salt pinch for traders

The East Singhbhum district health department has decided to crack down on retailers and wholesalers selling non-iodised salt from the last week of July.

The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by state nodal officer of National Iodine Deficiency Disorder Control Program Dhananjay Baraik on Friday.

A directive was issued to additional chief medical officer (ACMO) of East Singhbhum Swarn Singh and district food inspector Krishna Prasad Singh to start sensitisation drives to make retailers and wholesalers aware of ways to check iodine content in salt. This is ought to be followed by distribution of special test kit provided by Unicef. Thereafter, the authorities will conduct random inspections to catch retailers and traders dealing in salt with less iodine.

Baraik said Unicef has procured rapid salt test kit from Chennai MBI Kits International, which will be given to traders and merchants for free in the first phase.

"Unicef representatives will teach the salt traders and retailers how to use the kit. We also plan to take help from anganwadi sevikas, who will be trained to use the kit to measure iodine content. Thereafter, we will conduct surprise checks and if iodine level is found to be below the specified limit, samples will be seized and sent to government-recognised labs for tests. If results are positive, licences of the erring trader and retailer will be cancelled," the nodal officer said.

According to the newly formulated Food Safety and Standard Act, the specified limit for iodine content at production centre of salt is 30 PPM (parts per million) and 15 PPM at consumer point (retailer).

ACMO Singh said the sensitisation drive for anganwadi sevikas and salt traders and retailers would begin simultaneously from Saturday. "We have around 1,950 test kit. We plan to start the checking drive at rural and urban areas from July-end," he added.
President of State Salt Merchants' Federation Lalit Maheshwari admitted that the iodine content was below specified limit in privately procured salt as against the branded ones.

"In urban areas, consumption of branded salt is as high as 60 per cent. The problem lies in rural pockets where sale of privately procured salt is as high as 70 per cent mostly because of the cheap rate and ignorance on the part of consumers," said Maheshwari.

There is a price variation of Rs 6-8 per packet.