Pre-Diwali sweep: Spurious food worth Rs25 crore destroyed

Pune: In its ongoing drive for the implementation of the Food Safety and Standard Act, 2006, the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has destroyed spurious food products worth Rs25 crore across the state in the last few days. These items include mava (khoya), sweets and other items.
This was informed by FDA commissioner Mahesh Zagade on Sunday. Besides, with the impending festival of Diwali, the FDA has intensified its ongoing vigil on sweet marts and mava.
“In order to keep a strict check on the movement and procurement of food supply, we have made it mandatory for all sweet marts, sweet manufactures and others to procure licences. Also, the marts have to procure raw materials for their goods from licensed agencies. This will help us identify the source of the material in case of food poisoning,” he said.
He added that the food safety officers are conducting surprise raids at mava outlets. “We have already identified the hot spots from where spurious mava enters the state and we are keeping a close watch on them,” he said.
Besides, the officers are conducting spot testing of mava in order to identify adulteration.
Zagade said, “The spot testing involves identification of the animal protein in the mava, spot seizure and destruction of the adulterated mava.”
Zagade advised citizens to purchase materials only from licensed establishments. According to him, the citizens can ask for testing of suspected food items. “This process of testing, though will incur a cost of Rs1,000 for the desired citizen, but it will also work as a deterrent for the people involved in malpractice,” he said.

Improve food safety standards in retail: Analysts

With much importance placed on FDI in retail, food analysts sought strict implementation of food safety standards.
Speaking at a conference on ‘Enhancing Food Safety in Food Retail Chains’  organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), they felt the need for revisiting and strengthening the food control systems to improve safety standards in the entire value chain of food processing.
Deputy director of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India Dr G Srinivasan said food safety (FSSAI) is a shared responsibility of all stake holders.
“As sourcing is globalised, India can become bread basket of the world if we pay more attention to standards,” he said.
According to reports, India has the second largest arabale land in the world. But despite having diverse agro-climatic zones suitable for the cultivation of a variety of crops, India’s share in global food processing is just 2.3 per cent and it lags far behind even Pakistan and Bangladesh.
“FSSAI’s overall objective is to consolidate laws related to food. It has placed emphasis on minimum effective legislation and science based legislation, and enforcement,” regulatory expert M M Chitale said.
Commenting on the agro-products wastage, principal secretary of the department of agriculture Bharat Lal Meena said wastage in agro-products is over 70 per cent in the country and this is a national waste.
“Food safety has become more relevant now as the Union government has allowed FDI in retail. Educated farmers are using integrated farming of many crops in a small area and increasing the yield and reducing wastage,” Meena said.