Traders, bakers differ on food safety

As members of the Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithi are bracing up for a strike on October 3 against the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, their counterparts in the bakery industry will close down outlets for a one-day clean-up programme.

While the samithi is demanding withdrawal of stringent punishment envisaged in the law, the latter will be focussing on ways to ensure better hygiene.

Strategic move

The bakers, while maintaining the camaraderie among the trade groups, want to explore the opportunity for a worthwhile cause. It is a strategic move aimed at keeping the traders united, simultaneously giving a clear message on the purpose of a strike.

The Bakers Association Kerala (Bake) has been spearheading several initiatives to improve hygiene in the kitchen. Several classes have been organised by the association across the State for the members to get familiarised with the clauses of the new Act.

The organisation had brought out a Malayalam version of the Act. It is of the view that the Act is progressive and compliance with the provisions will be beneficial to the bakers’ community.

“The path to progress is clearly visible in the food supply scenario. Only those who adopt modern methodologies in production and packaging will be able to survive,” says P.M. Sankaran, president of Bake.

The food products available at large supermarkets and malls are mostly procured from local manufacturers, he points out. Quality and packaging matter a lot in the procurement process. Those who fail to meet the required standards will be wiped out of the scene, he says.

Many of the neighbourhood shops in Malabar have vanished in recent years as they remained in the old mould and could not cater to the demands of the transformed customer. Bakeries are being modernised and latest technologies being incorporated to increase competency levels. Many among the food product manufacturers have benefited from the ongoing process, he avers.

One of the prominent associations in the hotel industry will also support the implementation of the Act, according to him. M.Krishnan Nair, vice-president of the KVVES, says the new Act is being implemented in a haphazard way. The penalty under the new regime is exorbitant and the mechanism for reconciliation is hostile. One of the demands of the samithi is to remove the top official of the food safety and standards authority in the State. Significantly, the date for implementing the Act has been postponed several times in view of the demand from various organisations for more time. It has now been slated for implementation from February 5 next year.

However, market sources point out that implementation of a new law in Kerala is generally marked by stiff opposition. Much of the powers hitherto exercised by local bodies in respect of inspection of food, are being assigned to the new authority.

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Traders plan strike on October 3

Bakers to go on a clean-up drive

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Members of the Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Sa

FDI in multi-brand retail: shop shutdown tomorrow

Call to rectify anomalies in Food Safety Act of 2006

Shops across the State will down the shutters on October 3 in protest against the Centre’s recent decision to allow Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail and the anomalies in the implementation of the Food Safety Act of 2006. The strike is being jointly called by the Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithi and the Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Association (KHRA). Hotels and medical shops will remain closed.

Samithi president T. Nasseruddin said in a press conference here on Monday that FDI would result in monopolisation that could wipe away small retail shops.

“Even though the Chief Minister has said that the State would not allow FDI, it is to be seen how effective this promise will be. Our demand is to stop the implementation of FDI all over the country. Once 51 per cent FDI is allowed, the rest 49 per cent share of that particular company will be held by an Indian monopoly. This arrangement will allow them to start business in any State that they want to,” Mr. Nasseruddin said.

The samithi, he said, was dissatisfied with the implementation of the Food Safety Act. He alleged that food safety officers had been harassing hotel and eatery owners even though the licensing and implementation date had been extended to February 2013.

“The duty of the food safety officers now is to create awareness among shop owners of the Act. But they are now resorting to unwanted raids and harassing the hoteliers. The committees to decide the food standards and fine amounts are yet to come into place. So such raids cannot be condoned,” Mr. Nasseruddin said. The KHRA said the Act itself had many clauses that were unfairly loaded against small-time shop owners. “We are not against the Food Safety Act. But certain conditions laid down regarding packaging of foods could negatively affect the small hotels which cook traditional food items. This could lead to a kind of standardisation by which most of our traditional food will disappear, leading to the proliferation of packaged food items from multinationals,” said M. Abdul Nazeer, Kozhikode district president of the KHRA.

Another issue raised by the Samithi is that of shop rents. The periodic increase in shop rents has affected the profits of the shop owners, about 90 per cent of whom in Kerala conduct business out of rented shops. The landlord-tenant Act needs to be reformed to stabilise shop rents, it said.

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Hotels and medical shops will also remain closed

‘Food safety officers harassing hotel owners’

Tribute to Mahatma Gandhi-Father of the Nation, Administration imposes complete ban on ‘gutka’

Port Blair, Oct. 1: In a befitting tribute to Mahatma Gandhi-Father of the Nation who was strongly against consumption of tobacco, the A&N Administration has imposed complete ban on manufacture, sale, storage and display of all gutka products in the Islands. The formal decision to enforce the ban was taken by the Lt. Governor, Lt Gen (Retd) Bhopinder Singh, PVSM, AVSM. The decision has been taken due to increasing cases of oral cancer caused by chewing gutka and pan masala, particularly by the younger generation in the Islands. The complete ban on the product (sale, stocking, production and distribution) shall come into effect from 1st November 2012. The ban will be implemented by the Commissioner of Food Safety, Directorate of Health Services as per Regulation 2,3,4 of the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on Sales) Regulation 2011, made by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (1) of Sub-Section (2) of Section 92 of the Food Safety and Standards Acts, 2006 (Central Act 34 of 2006) read with section 26 thereof, which prohibits articles of food in which tobacco and nicotine are used as ingredients, as they are injurious to health. Gutka and pan masala are articles of food in which tobacco and nicotine are widely used as ingredient. As per the ban order manufacturing, storage, distribution and the sale of Gutka and Panmasala containing tobacco or nicotine as ingredients by whatsoever name available in the market is prohibited in the interest of public health.

Dinamalar News

FDA chief says scarce funding hobbles sweeping food safety regulations

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it is having difficulty implementing expansive new rules to improve food safety, nearly two years after President Barack Obama signed the standards into law, because of a lack of funding.

FDA chief Margaret Hamburg predicted on Monday that her agency "very soon" will issue new regulations needed to enforce the Food Safety Modernization Act, a sweeping piece of legislation enacted to upgrade the security of the U.S. food supply after a deadly salmonella outbreak in 2009.

Hamburg said the implementation process has been slow because Congress has not provided sufficient funds to meet the law's ambitious demands.

The legislation imposes the biggest changes in food safety since the 1930s and requires the FDA to undertake a major shift from a longstanding reactive role to a system designed to prevent food-borne outbreaks. It also calls for the agency to create new science-based safety standards for fruits and vegetables, packaged foods and food imports.

"Implementing that broadly expansive mandate with limited resources has been a challenge," Hamburg told a forum hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.

Her comments come at a time when the FDA is working to meet a host of new priorities, including improved international drug regulation, while analysts and industry officials say the agency's resources could fall prey to deficit reduction talks that are due to resume in Congress after the November 6 election.

The Food Safety Modernization Act, which Obama signed into law in January 2011, represents an effort to step up the federal government's battle with food-borne illnesses that afflict nearly 50 million Americans each year, killing thousands.

The United States, by most measures, has some of the safest food in the world. Still, roughly one in six people get sick from eating tainted products each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Deadlines under the law for major regulations intended to safeguard produce, packaged foods and food imports have passed without the issuance of even preliminary guidelines.

"It has been frustrating," Hamburg said. "We are moving forward. But it has been harder and slower than any of us would have wanted."

She called on private industry to help finance the law's provisions, which give the agency the power to mandate recalls when outbreaks strike. The FDA regulates about 80 percent of the U.S. food supply. Among the exceptions are meat and poultry, which are overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"What we have is a really nice car without any gas in the tank," said Erik Olson, food program director for the Pew Charitable Trusts.

He says the FDA's $866 million food safety budget could need hundreds of millions of dollars more to pay for the field the inspectors and scientists required to meet the new duties.

The legislation became law two years after a massive salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter killed nine people and sickened nearly 700, half of them children.

There have been about three-dozen major food-borne outbreaks since then, according to the CDC. There have been about dozen so far in 2012, including a recent salmonella outbreak involving peanut butter.