Apr 13, 2012

India sugar is pesticide free, says study

The pesticide food safety issue that has tainted India’s sugar market for more than a decade has been cleared in the wake of a study suggesting India-produced sugar is pesticide free.

The joint research, from the National Institution of Nutrition (NIN) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), showed that representative samples of sugar from across the country had no detectable presence of pesticides.

The study saw researchers test 27 samples collected from different states and mills across the country for the presence of organophosphate and organochlorine pesticides. Sugar samples were collected from mills in Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and West Bengal. Findings indicated an absence of pesticides; including alpha endosulfan and beta endosulfan, chlorpyrifos and DDT analysed at 0.1 microgram per kilogram level.

A Maharashtra-based sugar miller, who requested to remain anonymous, told FoodNavigator-Asia that this study is good news, especially for exportsas India is discussing the removal of government controls on sugar. “I am sure exports would be boosted thanks to this study. I also think makers of carbonated beverages can now shut up about the pesticide contamination in their drinks coming from our sugar,” he said.

Pesticide concerns
Cola companies have recently claimed that pesticide residues in sugar contaminated their bottled beverages, while pro-health groups and sugar makers said that is probably from the water they use. Pesticide contamination has been in the news across India for a while, with activist groups pounding the government and industry over the presence of pesticide residues in finished agricultural products containing sugars.

Last month, the Delhi High Court lambasted the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for claiming that that there is a wellestablished system to monitor presence of pesticides in food products. The court was adjudicating on the issue after taking notice of reports, which suggested that impermissible pesticides like endosulfan were found in food items, vegetables and fruits, especially around Delhi.

The FSSAI said that while Endosulfan was banned for use, its presence in food items might be evidenced over the next few years since the pesticide was already mixed with groundwater and soil.

Pro-health groups have demanded that the government set a minimum residual level (MRL) of pesticides in packaged agricultural products, including fruit and vegetable juices and carbonated beverages.

FOOD IRRADIATION-ISO'S NEW INITIATIVE

Food irradiation process on which enormous investments were made both in terms of valuable money as well as time is still to take off in spite of its proven efficacy and safety to human beings. Every day one is confronted by revelations that enormous amount of food produced in the world is lost irretrievably due to spoilage and other causes and according to one estimate this lost food would feed the entire world. Similarly food poisoning episodes due to contamination with many pathogens like Salmonella, virulent E.coli, Pseudomonas, Listeria etc are continuing posing serious safety problems in many countries. Why is that industry is reluctant to use this technology for the welfare of the consumers?. There are several reasons, most important of which is the regulatory authorities' insistence on mentioning irradiation on the label. It is a paradox that GM foods need not be labeled in a country like the US but irradiated foods must label it!  

"A new ISO standard—ISO 14470:2011—provides state-of-the-art requirements for food irradiation, commonly used to improve quality and safety in food processing. According to a press note by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), a developer and publisher of international standards, the standard will benefit manufacturers, irradiation operators, regulators, customers and, ultimately, consumers. The new standard pertains to requirements for the development, validation and routine control of the process of irradiation using ionising radiation for the treatment of food, not only providing requirements, but also guidance for meeting them. The note adds, food irradiation is the process where food is exposed to ionising radiation in order to improve its safety and quality. It is intended to be used only on food that has been produced under good manufacturing practice (GMP) principles. The irradiation of food can be used for different purposes including control of pathogenic microorganisms and parasites, reduction of the number of spoilage microorganisms, inhibition of the sprouting of bulbs, tubers and root crops, extension of product shelf life or phytosanitary treatment.The main objectives of ISO 14470:2011 are - Provide requirements for the irradiation of food consistent with current standards and practices; Provide directions for a technical agreement between the customer and the irradiator operator; and Establish documentation system to support the controls on the food irradiation process". 

The new ISO standard is good but for whom these standards are made is a question that does not have any ready answer. Of course small quantities of food products are irradiated, especially with low doses for some specific purpose whereas pharmaceutical and medical industry uses them extensively. If finalization of ISO standards for food irradiation heralds a new initiative for popularizing the technology, then it is timely. Otherwise it will remain as a sterile exercise with not many takers for it in the near future.

இனிய தமிழ் புத்தாண்டு வாழ்த்துக்கள்!



Watch out for what you eat. It could be killing you slowly and sweetly: says new CSE junk food and nutrition study

  • Most junk foods contain very high levels of trans fats, salts and sugar – which inevitably lead to severe ill health and diseases like obesity and diabetes
  • CSE lab tests 16 major brands of foods relished by people, particularly the young: Maggi and Top Ramen noodles, MacDonald’s foods, KFC’s fried chicken and Haldiram’s Aloo Bhujia, among others
  • Finds companies resort to large scale misbranding and misinformation; many say their products contain zero trans fats, but CSE finds heavy doses
  • Danger lurking: Younger generation hooked to junk food, vulnerable to heart diseases in the prime of their life
New Delhi, March 30, 2012: Junk foods – all the stuff that most of us love to gorge on – have enough trans fats, salt and sugar to lead us to an early onset of diseases in the young. And what’s worse, neither the companies, nor the government is bothering to tell us what these foods contain, says a new Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) study which was released here today.
“We all know junk food is bad; we still eat it. But do we know how bad it is? Do we ever check what we are eating and whether what that packet of chips or Maggie has what it claims it has? Our new study, which looks at the nutritional value of these foods, is to make people aware of what these foods really contain and what they will do to our health”: says Sunita Narain, director general, CSE.
CSE, which is known for some truly ground-breaking studies on food and contamination, says this is the first comprehensive Indian study to have looked at nutritional claims made (or not made) by junk food makers and how they compare against our ‘allowed daily intake’. “And the findings are pretty damning,” says Chandra Bhushan, CSE’s deputy director general, who also heads the Pollution Monitoring Lab which did the study.

Daily intake? Now what is that?

The National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have set certain benchmarks of how much salt, sugar, carbohydrates and fats every individual can have on a daily basis to stay healthy. These benchmarks add up to what constitutes a balanced diet.
CSE’s study -- which tested a host of samples of popular foods such as potato chips, snacks like aloo bhujia, noodles, soft drinks, burgers, French fries and fried chicken -- shows that having just one serving of these foods completely overturns our daily diet chart (see attached study findings).
For instance, the NIN benchmark for the maximum salt that one person should have in a day is 6 gram, while the WHO puts it at 5 gram. The normal 80-gram packet of Maggi noodles that many of us gobble up almost on a daily basis has over 3.5 gram of salt – enough to take care of over 60 per cent of our allowed daily salt intake.
Says Chandra Bhushan: “Which means for the rest of the day, we will be restricted to have food which should contain less than 2 gram of salt. Not a happy choice at all for us in the sub-continent who love to have our salt and eat it too.”
The terror is in the trans fats
Salt, however, is not the real or only problem. The real problem is trans fats, or the ‘bad fats’.
The WHO says that in a balanced diet, a maximum of 1 per cent of total energy should come from trans fats. Therefore, an adult male can have 2.6 gram of trans fats per day, while an adult female can have 2.1 gram and a child (10-12 years) can have 2.3 gram.
CSE’s tests reveals a dirty truth of misinformation, misbranding, wrong labelling and obfuscation indulged in by companies, some of whom are on the top of the charts. They show that many junk foods claim they have ‘0’ trans fats; some don’t even bother to mention how much trans fats they have. A child who eats one of those immensely savoury MacDonald’s Happy Meals finishes up 90 per cent of all his daily requirement of trans fats. The packet of Happy Meal makes absolutely no mention of this massive dosage of trans fats!
Top Ramen Super Noodles (Masala) claims there is zero trans fats in every 100 gram – the CSE study found 0.7 gram per 100 gram. Similarly, Haldiram’s Aloo Bhujia says it has no trans fats, but the study found 2.5 gram per 100 gram.
PepsiCo’s Lays (Snack Smart) was sold till February 2012 through huge advertisements to say that these chips are healthy because they have zero trans fats and are cooked in healthy oil – this claim was quietly removed later. When CSE checked, it found as much as 3.7 gram of trans fats per 100 gram of the product in March 2012 batch – which is a dangerously high dose! PepsiCo never bothered to inform consumers.
So what does all this mean for our health?
What makes junk food so unhealthy are the high levels of salt, sugar, fats and carbohydrates in them. Non-communicable diseases such as obesity and diabetes accounted for more than 50 per cent of all deaths in India in 2005; by 2030, they will kill two-thirds of all Indians.
The latest National Family Health Survey (2005-06) says at least one in every eight Indian is overweight or obese. In our cities, the situation is worse: one in every five urban Indian is obese and prone to numerous health disorders that obesity generates.
The CSE study has a deadlier tale to tell. The researchers behind the study say that the heavy doses of trans fats, joined with that of salt – which comes from all the so called ‘fun foods’ --  work together to trigger ill health which can lead to death.
Trans fats are notorious for clogging arteries: they deposit on the walls of the arteries and make them narrower. On top of that, when one has large amounts of salt, the blood pressure increases. The heart has to work overtime to push the blood around, which weakens it considerably.
Says Chandra Bhushan: “And there is enough global evidence to suggest that more and more young people are succumbing to problems of the heart at a much earlier age. At an age when they should have been at their productive best, they are loosing productive life by eating this junk.”
“Coming at a time when the world is struggling to contain NCDs or non-communicable diseases, when schools across the country are banning sale of junk foods on their campuses, when several countries are trying desperate measures such as ‘fat taxes’, this study tells us that we need stronger regulations that will reduce the quota of fats, sugar and salt in junk foods, and ones that will force companies to provide information to the public mandatorily,” says Narain.
For details, please call Souparno Banerjee on 9910864339 or write to him at souparno@cseindia.org