Associations take exception to certain provisions - THE HINDU

The Chennai Corporation will no longer issue food licences due to the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA) replacing the erstwhile Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (PFAA). It has directed hotels, restaurants and retailers in the city to approach the office of the Commissioner of Food Safety for issue of food licences henceforth. The FSSA designates the Commissioner of Food Safety as the licensing authority.
Hotels, bakeries, tea-shops, sweet and savouries stalls, departmental stores, vegetable and fruit vendors, everybody selling food items would be coming under the purview of the new Act, say those in various trade associations.
Associations including the Chennai Hotels Owners Association and Tamil Nadu Vanigar Sangakalin Peramaipu have raised objections to provisions relating to fine and penalty clauses, the amount of licence fee fixed under the Act and the standards of various products.
K.T. Srinivasa Raja, president, Chennai Hotels Owners Association, said the uniform licence fee would affect small hotels. “We don't know why the government is treating this as revenue instead of as nominal fee. We have already sent a letter to the Central government in this regard and hope we would hear something positive from them,” he said.
Mr. Raja explained that standards including lighting, drainage, consumer safety, food handling, upkeep of kitchens, ingredients used, source of raw materials, shelf life of food products were prescribed by the new Act. It prescribed penalty up to Rs.10 lakh and 6 months' imprisonment, which was being objected to by the trading community, he said.
“There are just too many things and it will take time for those in the industry to understand. We are holding discussions with association members in this regard,” he added. The city has around 10,000 small and big restaurants and eateries and around 3,000 bakeries.
K. Mohan, State general secretary, Tamil Nadu Vanigar Sangankalin Peramaipu, said that in Chennai alone there were 1.25 lakh traders, wholesales, retailers and petty shops.
“The new Act has standards for items including the common coriander, chutney, sambar, idli. It also states that food items should not be sold unpackaged, which means road-side sundal sellers and idli shops would be affected.”
Those having an annual turnover of less than Rs.12 lakh are also to register with the Commissioner. Though standards have been fixed under the Act, there are very few laboratories in the State to check these, he added.

Milk adulteration: Samples from Rajasthan dangerous

Jaipur: It’s now official that milk adulteration is a big problem in Rajasthan. The state government has recently submitted before the Rajasthan High Court the real magnitude of the problem.
Eight per cent of milk samples tested during the month-long period from January 20 to February 20 at laboratories of the state dairy department have been found adulterated. Out of 60,439 milk samples collected from across the state, as many as 4,755 samples were found adulterated. Milk samples from Jhalawar were found the most adulterated, while samples from Dholpur were pure.
The report was submitted before the court by Additional Solicitor General SN Kumawat before a division bench of High Court, comprising Chief Justice Arun Mishra and Justice NK Jain (First). The court also directed the state government to file a detailed report in three weeks about what action the government has initiated to check the menace.
A total of 2,027 samples were collected under the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), out of which 1,479 were examined.
As many as 278 samples were found to be sub-standard (not conforming to standards laid down in Act), while 1,194 were found up to the mark. The samples from Jhalawar were found to be the most contaminated, with 45.39 per cent of total 3,212 samples, were adulterated. Next in line was Baran, with 31.86 per cent samples out of 2,222 samples were adulterated, followed by Bundi 17.4 per cent, Hanumangarh 13.5 per cent and Kota 10.8 per cent.
Best quality milk was found in Dholpur, Karaulli, Jaisalmer, Jaipur Zone I and II, besides Ajmer Zone. While zero adulteration was found in 1,220 samples of Dholpur, 1.19 per cent samples in Karaulli and Jaisalemer were found contaminated. While, 1.72 per cent samples (40 out of 2,329 samples) were found contaminated in Jaipur Zone II, just 4 out of 94 samples were found adulterated in Jaipur Zone I.
Earlier, the National Survey on Milk Adulteration 2011 conducted by the Food and Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) whose results were made public last month only had found 76 per cent of milk samples tested from Rajasthan as adulterated.
The worrying part of the study was its conclusion that the ‘packaged milk’ was not absolutely safe and in cases, not milk at all- only reconstituted powdered milk. In Rajasthan, the surveyors studied 103 samples of milk, packaged and open. According to the state report, 78 samples failed the purity test. One out of every five samples in the state that failed test was packaged milk- used widely in urban areas.
Besides water and detergents, strains of hydrogen peroxide, sugar, starch, glucose, urea, formalin and vegetable fat were the common adulterants in milk.

COMFED milk as per national parameters of purity : Minister

Patna, Feb 27 (PTI) Bihar government today reiterated that the milk being marketed by the State Cooperative Milk Producers Federation Limited(COMFED) among the consumers in the state was as per national parameters of purity.

The milk being marketed by the COMFED in Sudha brand in Bihar was as per the national parameters of purity, the Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Minister Giriraj Singh told the legislative council. He was replying to a question raised by the CPI(M) MLA Vasudev Singh in this regard. Referring to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) report claiming cent per cent adulteration of milk produced in Bihar,

Singh said that the central agency has not clarified as to where from samples were taken for testing. The Animal Husbandry and Fisheries minister said that the FSSAI was yet to respond to a letter that he had written seeking details of the milk samples taken by it for testing. Singh said that the milk was sold in Bihar both by organized and unorganized milk producers and he could speak for purity of the milk being marketed by the COMFED.