Street food vendors defying hygiene norms, says survey

BIS releases a set of requirements on preparation and sale of street foods

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) which adopted the Indian Standard draft relating to Street Food Vendors (SFV) has released a set of basic requirements for the preparation and sale of street foods on push cart platforms and make-shift arrangements in towns and cities in the country.

For the first time in the country, street food vendors are required to meet a set of sanitation norms and regulations in order to make street food healthy for consumption. The norms were finalised by the Food, Hygiene, Safety Management and Other Systems Sectional Committee and approved by the Food and Agriculture Division Council.

Recently a survey conducted by a national agency revealed that 90 per cent of the food supplied by roadside vendors was contaminated with food-borne pathogens.

Indian standard norms suggest that the vending carts shall normally be located away from environmentally polluted areas and industrial activity which poses a serious threat of contamination of food. It shall be away from rubbish, waste water, toilet facilities, open drains and animals. Sale point surroundings shall be kept clean and litter free. Working surfaces shall be hygienic, impermeable, easy to clean and 60 to 70 per cent above ground. Cooking utensils shall be easy to clean and disinfect, heat tolerant, corrosion resistant and not capable of transferring substances to food in such quantities as to present a health risk to consumers. Cooking, storage and serving shall not be done in utensils of copper, cadmium, lead, non-food grade plastic and other toxic materials. Utensils shall be cleaned of debris, rinsed, scrubbed with detergent and washed under running water after every operation. It shall not be wiped with aprons, soiled clothes, unclean towels or hands. Bare hands for handling ready to eat food shall not be used. Hands shall be washed before putting on gloves. All food handlers shall not handle food with cuts in skin or sores or skin infections. They shall be away from handling food if they are suffering from diarrhoea or vomiting or infectious diseases. They shall also refrain from smoking while working at the food point. Food vending area should be periodically fumigated with approved chemical.

Protected water

Also protected water, meaning filtered or boiled water should be supplied to the customers.

Materiel Testing House(MTH) Laboratory director K. Srinivasa Varma told The Hindu that the ground reality with regard to following basic norms by the food vendors are beyond description. Most of the street food vendors operate in unhygienic conditions beside gutters with nauseating smell emanating from them. Some operate close to urinal points which are prone to infectious diseases.

‘Stopped eating’

Sunitha, a regular visitor to street eating points, said she stopped eating roadside junk food after she saw food handler scratch his hair and his legs and preparing eatables without inhibitions with the same unclean hands.

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Vending carts shall normally be located away from polluted areas

Those suffering from infectious diseases should not handle food

Food safety team raids college hostel

Hostel raided

Food safety officials had conducted raid on a private nursing college near Pasumalai in the city on Sunday night following complaints of vomiting by several hostel students.

A team led by J.Suguna, Designated Officer for Food Safety-Madurai district, inspected the kitchen and expressed shock over the unhygienic conditions in which food is being prepared for hostellers.

“On Saturday, we got a complaint that some students were admitted to hospital for vomiting and diarrhoea.

Based on that our food safety inspectors went to the hostel and there it was found that food prepared was of very poor quality,” she said.

Dr.Suguna informed that about 15 students were taken to hospital for treatment.

The college authorities were directed to take Food Safety License immediately and maintain food quality in hygienic conditions.

Several packaged food samples fail quality test

In an inspection, a total of 133 packaged food samples were found unsafe for consumption

Besides, 205 samples out of the total 2,713 were found substandard Unhealthy
 

If you think that packaged food is safe, then be careful.

In an inspection by the health department, a total of 133 packaged food samples were found unsafe for consumption. These included packaged food by all major brands which people can mostly buy at malls.

Besides, 205 samples out of the total 2,713 were found substandard.

The names of another 286 samples resembled the names and appearances (logos, packet shape & colour etc) of established brands.

The inspection was carried out at various places like hotels, malls, shopping stores, railway stations, bus stands etc in the state between August 2011 and January 2013.

Giving this information, director of health and medical services BR Meena said that samples were collected from many places in the state. Notably, consumers usually have complaints against packaged spices and cold drinks. “We recently came across a case in which a cockroach was found in a snack meant for kids. This is dangerous and we have forwarded the compliant to the lawyers,” said Krishna Acharya, a consumer rights activist.

Sources said that consumers have been filing complaints at several forums against adulteration in packaged juices, drinking water etc. There are not enough food testing labs in the state.

There is only one food testing lab in Sethi Colony in Jaipur. In total, there are just six government labs to test the quality of packaged food in the state. “Food Safety and Standards Act was established in the state but it’s not being reinforced properly,” said Anant Sharma of Consumer Action and Network Society. Notably, the state government had started ‘Shuddh Ke Liye Yuddh Abhiyaan’ a few months back but the drive has lost its steam.

“Large-scale food adulteration in Delhi”

Highest number of samples was collected from Model Town followed by Kotwali

The Delhi Government has in the past five years tested 14,761 samples for food adulteration of which 886 samples have been found to be in violation of standards. Of the total samples, 1,668 samples were taken last year and 3,148 in 2011.
The highest number of samples were collected from Model Town followed by Kotwali and Connaught Place. Samples were also retrieved from places such as Karol Bagh, Hauz Khas and Narela. In all, samples from 27 places in the Capital were collected and tested to see if they were in accordance with The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act & Rules (PFA) and the Food Safety and Standard Act.
The information was furnished under the ‘Starred Questions’ in the Delhi Assembly on Friday upon questions posed to Health Minister A. K. Walia by Bharatiya Janata Party MLA and party Chief Whip Sahab Singh Chauhan. He had asked the Minister to provide information on the number of samples collected for testing in Delhi in the last five years and the steps taken by the government to prevent adulteration in different kinds of food items.
Mr. Chauhan had also enquired about the steps taken to prevent the supply of adulterated milk, butter and ghee from outside Delhi. Apart from special drives conducted to check adulterated food items, legal action has been taken against 39 offenders, said the written reply.
Seemapuri MLA Veer Singh Dhingan had also asked for information on the number of persons against whom action had been taken during the last two years. The Health Department said “377 samples did not meet the standards. Cases have been registered in various courts against people involved in 287 of these samples. For the remaining cases a departmental enquiry is on after which cases will be registered.”
Of 14,761 samples, 886 violated standards

Tamenglong ban on tobacco items

Chief Medical Officer cum Designed Officer Food Safety, Tamenglong, has issued a notification informing general public and all Food Business Operators (FBOs) in Tamenglong District that the manufacture, storage, transportation, distribution, display, sale and purchase of Gutkha, Khaini, Zarda, Pan Masala and other chewable smokeless tobacco products containing tobacco or nicotine food ingredients as unsafe food injurious to health are completely banned with immediate effect until further orders. Failing to comply will attract punishment under the provisions of the Food Safety and standards Act, 2006, the notification added.

‘75% eateries fail to follow norms’

Nearly 75 per cent of the food business operators (FBOs) in the city are yet to comply with the new norms laid down by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Health Department officials said. Unlicensed eateries compromise on cleanliness, they added.
The department is conducting a survey to determine the exact number of FBOs. According to unnofficial figures, 22,000 of such eateries are currently operating in the State. Of these, 7,000 are in the city. “Only 30 per cent of food chains in the state have obtained licence and have converted their existing licences under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act,1954, to the new Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, said Health Commissioner V B Patil.
The Act mandates hotels, franchised eateries and roadside food vendors to register with FSSAI and follow basic hygiene and safety requirements or pay a maximum fine of `1 lakh. The lukewarm response from FBOs has forced authorities to advance the deadline from February 4, this year, to the same time next year.

CM move to expose health minister ‘conspiracy’?

In what is being seen as an attempt to expose the conspiracy of his health minister to give relief to the non-smoking tobacco producing companies by trying to bring in a separate bill, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi here on Saturday said that he instructed ban on non-smoking tobacco under the provisions of a Central act.
Clarifying the charges of his health minister who recently tried to put blame on chief minister for delaying a separate bill of the state banning non-smoking tobacco in the state, Mr Gogoi told reporters, “You have asked so I want to put the facts straight. It was Union health ministry which in August had advised state health department to ban non-smoking tobacco through a formal letter to Assam chief secretary and health department.” Admitting that the letter did not come to his notice, Mr Gogoi said, “In December, DoNER minister Pawan Singh Ghatowar wrote a letter to me asking ban on non-smoking tobacco. Soon after receiving the letter, I instructed the health department to ban it but it was delayed.”
In an obvious reference to his health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma who wanted to ban non-smoking tobacco through a separate bill instead of adopting the Central act, Mr Gogoi said, “I have examined both the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restricti-ons on Sales) Regulations, 2011 dated 1st August 2011, issued under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and the separate bill proposed by the health minister.”
Refusing to indulge in any blame game, he said that there was no need of any separate bill to ban non-smoking tobacco in the state.

Gogoi, minister spar over gutkha ban

There is a new twist in the dissidence brewing against Tarun Gogoi government in Assam. While Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is in favour of bringing a state law banning tobacco products, the Chief Minister is in favour of of a ban on gutkha and other non-smoking tobacco products under the Central Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
While Sarma on Thursday tried to blame Gogoi for the delay in tabling a state Bill, the CM on Saturday said, "What if the proposed Act is challenged in the court of law? The existing (Central) Act already covers all aspects necessitating ban on various tobacco products." Negating Sarma's move to enact a new law, Gogoi indirectly blamed him for not implementing a Union Health Ministry directive sent in August last year asking the state government to immediately ban manufacture, transportation, storage, sale and display of gutkha and other non-smoking tobacco products.
"The Union Health Ministry had in August last year written to the state Chief Secretary to ban gutkha, paan-masala and other tobacco products under the Food Safety and Standards Act. But there was no action from the state health department. I was not informed about this letter until Union Minister Paban Singh Ghatowar wrote to me about the Centre's letter," Gogoi said.
The CM said the health department had informed him that the ban would lead to loss to the state exchequer as several units in Assam manufacture such products and some neighbouring states had not yet banned them.
Sarma hit back saying he would like to make public notes of discussion in the government file regarding the tobacco ban issue. "In view of prevailing confusion, I will seek permission of the government to release all recorded note of discussion in file regarding tobacco ban issue," he tweeted on Sunday.