Vacancies hit food safety panel

NEW DELHI: Delay in setting up the full panel of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has led to a pile up of decisions on setting safety standards and guidelines for several food items, sources said.

Appointments in the FSSAI have taken months to come through. For instance, the post of chairman remained vacant for a significant period after P I Suvrathan retired in September last year after a three month extension. The chairman's post was vacant for a significant period and in January this year former health secretary K Chandramouli
took over.

But now another vacancy has come up with the chief executive officer (CEO) V N Gaur's retirement. Gaur has retired in end February and has already handed over charge. This vacancy is expected to further delay the setting up of the full authority, sources said.

The entire panel which approves safety guidelines comprises 23 members including the chairman. There are members drawn from various ministries and 10 members are nominated from civil society, states and eminent citizens. "Some of the members have not been nominated yet. So from September there has been a delay," sources said.

"Guidelines for caffeinated drinks, draft standards for artificial, sweetners and trans-fats among other decisions have been held due to the delay in nominating the members to the authority. Once the authority is setup it can take decisions which are then passed on to the government for final approval and notification," the sources said.

The FSSAI has been created for laying down science based standards for articles of food and to regulate their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import to ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption, according to its website.

The ministry of health and family welfare is the administrative ministry for the implementation of FSSAI. The FSSAI has been mandated by the FSS (Food Safety and Standard) Act, 2006 for framing of regulations to lay down the standards and guidelines in relation to articles of food and specifying appropriate system of enforcing various standards, the website says.

Get licences, hoteliers and provision store owners told

Applications can be downloaded from www.fssai.gov.in.

The Centre has passed the “Food Safety and Standards Act 2006” for ensuring supply of safe and wholesome food articles to consumers and as per its provisions, all those running hotels and provisions stores should get licences, according to Rajendra Ratnoo, District Collector.

Speaking at an awareness meeting held here for hoteliers and provision store owners, Mr. Ratnoo said the Act encompassed all aspects of food supply, from manufacturing points to end-users.

It provides for analysing any food article for extraneous matter, adulterants, and contaminants. The Act also provides for keeping track of genetically modified or engineered food items. Besides taking care of food products at the manufacturing points, the Act also focuses attention on supply side.

For instance, hotels should not engage any person suffering from infectious or contagious or loathsome diseases.

Provision stores should neither store nor sell any unsafe or misbranded or substandard or any item prohibited by the food authority or the Central government or the State government.

Mr. Ratnoo said food security officers had been appointed at the district, municipal and panchayat union levels for proper implementation of the Act. Food business operators can apply for licences either through those officials or download applications from www.fssai.gov.in.

Bakery companies go easy on caramel issue

Biscuit, confectionery, ice-cream and bakery product makers are not perturbed by a debate raging on the adverse impact of caramel. For, the companies say the grade of caramel they use is different from the ones used by carbonated beverage makers.
“We use plain caramel that is produced by heating sugar at high temperature,” says Prabhakar Kanade, chief research & development officer, Mother Dairy. “The catalyst used here is an organic compound — not ammonia or an ammonium compound, which is used by carbonated beverage makers,” says the official with the 1974founded company, which has icecreams in its portfolio, besides milk and other dairy products.
This caramel produced using liquid ammonia or ammonium compounds is also called acid-stable caramel. It is this grade, which has 4-methylimidazole, or 4-MI, high levels of which have been linked to cancer in animals, according to food safety experts.
Under rules and regulations prescribed by the Food & Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), users of acid-stable caramel have to indicate the same on the product. Users of plain caramel, however, have no such stipulation, because the regulator has described it as safe. The limit prescribed for the use of caramel by FSSAI is three grams per litre.

DINAMALAR - COCO COLA ARTICLE