Rs 1.6 lakh penality imposed under Food Safety Act

KATHUA :  Jagdev Singh Manhas, Adjudicating Officer, District Kathua appointed under Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 for the purpose of adjudication of offences alleged to have been committed under the Act has decided eight cases of food articles declared misbranded/sub standard by food analyst Jammu on Monday.
A fine of Rs 1,65,000 have been imposed on different food business operators.  The Challan in the above said cases were filed before Adjudicating Officer Kathua by Food Safety Officers,  District   Kathua namely Hans Raj Andotra and Charanjeet Kumar.  The sanction for prosecution in the instant cases has been accorded by Pankaj Soni, Designated Officer Kathua. 
The Commissioner of Food Safety has made an appealed to the Food Business Operators to manufacture/distribute the food articles strictly in compliance with the various provisions laid down under the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 and Rules and Regulations 2011 and further ensure that wholesome and safe food is made available to  consumers.

AMC raids malls, hotels for food samples

A team from health department destroys 130 kg of unhygienic food; issues notices to 18 hotels and six malls

In a major food safety drive, a flying squad from Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s health department took samples from 16 hotels, including five- and four-star ones, as well as 10 malls frequented by Amdavadis. The samples have been sent to Public Health Laboratory in Navrangpura. If these are found to be unsafe, AMC will take further action.

Hotels and malls from where the samples were taken are Taj Ummed, Comfort Inn, Hotel Pride, Grand Bhagwati, Le Meridian, Inder Residency, Big Bazaar, Reliance Fresh, Big Bazaar and National Handloom Corporation. The department has also issued notices to 18 other hotels and six other malls.

“The squad conducted the drive on Thursday and Friday to check the quality of food under Food Safety and Standard Act 2006. This is a regular exercise. We get results from the
laboratory in 15 days.

“The respective party will be informed about the standard of sample taken from their premises,” said Bhavin Joshi, in-charge medical health officer.

“Party whose samples are found unfit can then send their samples to the food laboratory in Ghaziabad through us. They just have to issue a demand draft of Rs 1,000 in the name of the laboratory. If the results from Ghaziabad matches AMC’s, we will write to the executing officer of Food Safety Department in Gandhinagar to take action against the offender,” Joshi further added.

Joshi said that the team also destroyed 130 kg of unhygenic food and collected Rs 96,000 from the vendors as administrative charges. We will continue this drive in coming days as well, Joshi told Mirror.

Drive against malls and hotels will continue in the coming days, said AMC

Traders to meet MPs in New Delhi

Food Safety Act: delegation will seek cooperation from political parties

To continue their protest against Food Safety and Standards Act and seek amendments in the same, traders from Indore and other parts of the state will visit the national capital on Wednesday to seek support from various political parties. The 30-member delegation will have traders from Indore, Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur and several other places.

"The delegation would meet members of Parliament and officials from Food Safety and Standards Authority of India to seek support for amendments in the act," said Sushil Sureka , former president Ahilya Chamber of Commerce and Industry.The traders have made CDs containing contentious provisions of the act and set of suggestions to bring about changes in it. Sureka said that the chief minister had also assured the traders that no punitive action would be taken against them till the matter was not resolved.

The traders had gone on a strike from April 9 to 11 against the implementation of the act, paralyisng normal life in the city. The traders' protracted show of strength had led to the cumulative loss of at least Rs.2,200 crore in Indore alone. Although Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan expressed solidarity with the agitating traders and had even written a letter to the Prime Minister on their behalf, the Centre had given no indication of amending the contentious provision in the Food Safety Act which provides for fine up to Rs.1 lakh for selling unmarked edible products.

MADURAI COLLECTOR SEIZED ADULTERATED TEA

Government plans a crackdown on pharma firms selling drugs as dietary supplements

NEW DELHI: The government is planning a crackdown on drug companies selling medicines under the garb of dietary supplements, which are not regulated.

Senior officials in the department of pharmaceuticals and the health ministry said several drug makers have secured approval for drugs as dietary supplements under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, where price and other regulations on drugs do not apply.

This not only allows them to sell the product at a price more than the maximum retail price fixed by the government for the ingredient drug but also helps them avoid inspection by the authorities.

"In addition to higher cost, there is also a health issue as they are being advertised aggressively as normal health products and there can be side effects if people use them indiscriminately," a senior health ministry official said. Popular among the dietary supplements available in India are Ranbaxy's Revital, Piramal Healthcare's Supractive, Dabur India's Nutrigo and Modicare's Well multi-vitamin.

The nutraceuticals segment in India is expected to touch $5 billion by 2015, from $2 billion at present.

Dietary supplements are big revenue earners for drug makers. For instance, Revital rakes in over 180 crore a year for Ranbaxy Laboratories and is also the company's best-selling product in India.




Some experts say that while the chances of harmful side effects of dietary supplements are minimal-as they contain drugs in sub-therapeutic levels-a bigger problem is that these products and their manufacturing processes are not inspected for efficacy or quality.

"They are registered as food products and there is no inspection at all. Under Indian laws, they should be medicines. After all, they contain several drugs," said C M Gulati, a Delhi-based drug expert. In India, the government fixes the retail price of medicines that contain ingredients under price control.

According to Piramal Healthcare director Swati Piramal, the quantity of drugs in Supractive is less than the dosage recommended for therapy and, therefore, worries over harmful side effects due to overuse are unfounded.

Piramal said that price control and advertisement ban should be removed for dietary supplements and drugs that are used to treat illnesses caused due to deficiency, such as anaemia. "A large section of the population suffers from deficiency of key vitamins and nutrients," she said.Ranbaxy declined o comment on the matter.

Most food and health supplements contain vitamins A, B1, B2, C and E, which are among the 74 drugs whose prices are fixed by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), the drug price regulator.

The Department of Pharmaceuticals and the NPPA have now taken up the matter with the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) and food regulatory bodies to plug this loophole.

According to an official of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, experts will examine whether such products are being used as drugs or supplements, and those qualifying as drug will be brought under price control.