FDA orders 8 eateries, 2 bakeries to stop activities

PANAJI: The director of Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), Mr Salim Veljee, has said that eight eating houses and two bakeries have been directed to stop activities till the deficiencies related to hygiene, sanitation, health cards, etc noted by the officials of his department during inspection of these places were rectified.
Mr Veljee further stated that 30 eateries, restaurants, bakeries, etc in the coastal belt (in North and South Goa) were inspected by his department officials and 53 of them have been issued improvement notices on noting shortcomings during the inspections.
He said that the inspections were part of the pre-monsoon checks and hotels, restaurants, bakeries, etc located in Panaji, Mapusa, Vasco, Margao, Ponda and coastal areas were checked by food safety officers during the inspections which began from April 15.
Meanwhile, Mr Veljee has further stated that under the new Food safety and Standards Act 2006 and rules and regulations 2011 compounding of offences with fine have been prescribed for serving/selling substandard food, misbranded food, misleading/false advertisement, etc and district collector and additional district collector have been notified as adjudicating officers.
He said that as per the rules all proceedings before adjudicating officers should be completed within 90 days of the first hearing. The fine and penalty for misbranded food is upto Rs 2 lakh while that for substandard food, the penalty is as high as Rs 5 lakh. The first case under the new law was filed by food safety officer of the FDA, Mr Rajiv Korde on Thursday.

Supply of unsafe water high in EG

Supply of unsafe packaged drinking water has become rampant in East Godavari, given the fact that food control authorities booked nine cases out of 21 water samples lifted in the last two months.

Supply of unsafe packaged drinking water has become rampant in East Godavari, given the fact that food control authorities booked nine cases out of 21 water samples lifted in the last two months.

As day temperatures are soaring, more travellers depend upon packaged drinking water sachets or bottles. This has become handy for unscrupulous elements to set up water plants without authorisation and release packaged water into the market.
Food control authorities maintain that out of the 21 water samples collected and sent for analysis recently, they received results for only a few samples from the state food laboratory located in Hyderabad.
Of the nine cases booked as per the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and Regulations, 2011, food control authorities found that several water plants were set up without obtaining the mandatory certification from the Bureau of Indian Standards.
The authorities also appealed to the general public to purchase packaged drinking water sachets or bottles only after verifying BIS certification and details related to date of manufacture and also address of the manufacturer to ensure that they do not drink unsafe water.
They are also going to raid hotels, restaurants, food joints and roadside eateries to lift samples and send them for analysis to ensure that people do not eat unsafe food.
They maintain that for minor offences, cases will be taken up by the joint collector who serves as an adjudicating officer and in case, there is grave violation of food safety norms, the food business operator will be booked and cases will be filed in the court where penalty will be imposed and also imprisonment, depending upon the severity of the offence.

Hotel menus to carry info on salt, fat content

With neutraceutical firms and other energy food firms making tall claims and misleading public, the Food Standards and Safety Authority of India (FSSAI) will notify additional norms in a month to keep tabs on advertisements by such firms.
After considering public opinion, these norms would be made part of the Food Safety and Standards (packaging and labelling) regulations, 2011.
“They need to support their claims with scientific evidence. The Authority will make it mandatory for firms to indicate details on the packages. If they do not live up to the claims, they have to change the ads,” Mr B Sesikeran, Chairman of Scientific Panel on food Labelling and Director of the National Institute of Nutrition, said.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a workshop on ‘Importance of agricultural technology in India' here on Wednesday, he said that hotels would be asked to carry details of important parameters such as salt, iron and saturated fat contents in the food items they serve. “It, however, is voluntary initially. It may be made mandatory after a few years,” he said.
Earlier addressing the workshop organised by IndoAsiancommodities.com, he said that more European companies were taking to genetically modified crops. “There is no adverse evidence of ill-effects of GM foods in the countries where they are consumed,” he said.