Mar 20, 2013
Mid- day meal: Health dept collects samples of cooked food
Following the raid, Dr Kumar said that the team found that the food was being cooked in hygienic conditions; moreover, the condition of kitchen was better than earlier and staff of the kitchen were also following the required instructions.
According to the health department, the reports of the collected samples will come after 15 days.
Earlier, deputy commissioner Rahul Tiwari had directed that the Ludhiana civil Surgeon should ensure that at least one officer concerned remained present at the centralised kitchen daily to issue a certificate that the food was cooked in hygienic condition, and the quality of food was proper for the consumption of the students.
Harmonisation of standards with CODEX by end of the year, workshop told
Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is working towards the harmonisation of India’s food standards with CODEX standards and other international best practices.
The effort is to address every plan of food business and in the next two to three years, ensure that India has the best standards globally in food safety - latest by December 2014 with a final extended deadline of March 2015.
“We are looking to review the standards taking into account the latest developments in food science globally, food consumption pattern, new specifications, presence of new contaminants and toxins, besides use of new food additives and ingredients,” said S Dave, advisor, FSSAI.
Dave was in Bengaluru for the third workshop programme on harmonisation of India’s food standards with CODEX and other international best practices, organised by the Confederation of Indian Food Trade and Industry (food wing of FICCI) in association with FSSAI. The earlier workshops were held at Kochi and New Delhi.
In his inaugural address, he said that a strategy was being put in place to implement harmonisation of India’s food standards, food safety management programme and set up a framework for national research labs, besides train the lab technicians and analysts. Since all these segments were interrelated and did not function in isolation, there was need to have coordinated efforts.
“The food safety management strategy has 11 schemes covering from good manufacturing practices to storage and retail. We are now keen to create awareness about this. Simultaneously, efforts are on to modernise 40 state labs and 32 public labs to Level 1. This strategy presentation will be ready by next month where we are looking to monitor the lab practices ensure the right people are hired to deliver the required results,” stated Dave.
“FSSAI is inviting experts from the industry, government, academia, laboratories and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to participate in the harmonisation process. It is necessary to identify the current areas and volume of work involved in explaining the strategy, scope of work, guidelines for working groups, timelines, format and procedures to forward nominations. It is evident that the process of harmonisation cannot be complete without the active contribution and cooperation of experts in the country,” he added.
India needs to consider the development of new standards in the wake of an environment of open market. This has led FSSAI to frame a strategy to take up the work in a time- bound manner, according to Dave.
Providing the indispensability of harmonisation of India’s food standards on par with Codex and other international best practices, Rajendra Dobriyai, member, FICCI CODEX cell, said that it would help enhance food trade with developed countries and increase consumer confidence. It was a long felt need for the industry to review the reforms and allow advanced technology to improve speed to market.
“It was high time that India explores the possibilities for self regulation, broaden use of additives in food categories and align with the Codex GFSA (General Standard for Food Additives). There is no doubt that the industry is looking for standards and shift focus to ingredients from products. Now the food industry is keen to play its role and regulations are mandated to permit rational fortification of all commodities,” said Dobriyai.
The effort is to address every plan of food business and in the next two to three years, ensure that India has the best standards globally in food safety - latest by December 2014 with a final extended deadline of March 2015.
“We are looking to review the standards taking into account the latest developments in food science globally, food consumption pattern, new specifications, presence of new contaminants and toxins, besides use of new food additives and ingredients,” said S Dave, advisor, FSSAI.
Dave was in Bengaluru for the third workshop programme on harmonisation of India’s food standards with CODEX and other international best practices, organised by the Confederation of Indian Food Trade and Industry (food wing of FICCI) in association with FSSAI. The earlier workshops were held at Kochi and New Delhi.
In his inaugural address, he said that a strategy was being put in place to implement harmonisation of India’s food standards, food safety management programme and set up a framework for national research labs, besides train the lab technicians and analysts. Since all these segments were interrelated and did not function in isolation, there was need to have coordinated efforts.
“The food safety management strategy has 11 schemes covering from good manufacturing practices to storage and retail. We are now keen to create awareness about this. Simultaneously, efforts are on to modernise 40 state labs and 32 public labs to Level 1. This strategy presentation will be ready by next month where we are looking to monitor the lab practices ensure the right people are hired to deliver the required results,” stated Dave.
“FSSAI is inviting experts from the industry, government, academia, laboratories and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to participate in the harmonisation process. It is necessary to identify the current areas and volume of work involved in explaining the strategy, scope of work, guidelines for working groups, timelines, format and procedures to forward nominations. It is evident that the process of harmonisation cannot be complete without the active contribution and cooperation of experts in the country,” he added.
India needs to consider the development of new standards in the wake of an environment of open market. This has led FSSAI to frame a strategy to take up the work in a time- bound manner, according to Dave.
Providing the indispensability of harmonisation of India’s food standards on par with Codex and other international best practices, Rajendra Dobriyai, member, FICCI CODEX cell, said that it would help enhance food trade with developed countries and increase consumer confidence. It was a long felt need for the industry to review the reforms and allow advanced technology to improve speed to market.
“It was high time that India explores the possibilities for self regulation, broaden use of additives in food categories and align with the Codex GFSA (General Standard for Food Additives). There is no doubt that the industry is looking for standards and shift focus to ingredients from products. Now the food industry is keen to play its role and regulations are mandated to permit rational fortification of all commodities,” said Dobriyai.
Nagaland’s food safety standard raises concerns
First fresh milk from the unorganised sector, now packaged and pasteurised toned milk from the organised sector has come under scrutiny. If concentration of water overwhelming the presence of basic nutrients in fresh milk was not shocking enough, presence of chemical traces in supposedly hygienically processed toned milk will certainly put a question mark on the food safety standard followed in this part of the world.
In the backdrop of the district food safety authority making public its finding on milk vendors indulging in adulteration of one of nature’s, arguably, most wholesome foods, a Dimapur based veterinary practitioner made a shocking disclosure stating that toned milk, processed, packaged and marketed by Nagaland’s premier milk processing unit, is not safe enough for human consumption.
Dr. Michael, who runs a veterinary clinic in Dimapur, said the discovery was made after a consumer approached him to test the quality of toned milk marketed by DIMUL. The veterinary practitioner has a certified milk adulteration test kit, also known as Adulteration Testing of Milk or ATM.
He said the tests were carried out to satisfy the consumer’s curiosity. Surprisingly, adulterants were detected. Considering the gravity of the finding and with public health in mind, the vet was compelled to go public with the finding, all too familiar with the legal ramification that may or may not follow; but not before carrying out further tests, conducted on three different days.
On March 17, Dr. Michael physically demonstrated to media persons the test procedure using samples from a packet of toned milk marketed by DIMUL on the day. The packaging date on the packet was ‘17 March 2013’. The shelf life of DIMUL pasteurised toned milk is two days from date of packaging.
Five different samples were taken from the same packet to test the presence of urea, sugar, detergent, maltose, neutralisers, and Nitrate or pond water. Save one, all samples tested positive, indicating the presence of adulterants. Presence of urea, sugar, detergent, maltose and slight traces of neutralizers were detected in each of the tested samples.
To cite an example, a sample tested to determine the presence of nitrate will turn pinkish red if it is adulterated with nitrate or pond water. In this case, it did not occur.
This was followed up with another round of tests on March 19, this time in the presence of the Dimapur district Food Safety Officer (FSO). Samples were taken from a packet of DIMUL toned milk marketed on the day. Aforementioned adulterants were detected as in tests conducted over the past few days. Further, sodium chloride, also known as common salt, was detected.
Sample tests were also conducted on tetra-packed toned milked marketed by reputed companies and on fresh milk procured from a local vendor. Detergent and maltose were detected in the samples taken from two different brands of tetra-packed toned milk.
The tests however could not determine at what level or percentage the adulterants were present. The Minimum Detection Limit or MDL for urea is 0.5 percent, detergent 0.2 percent, sugar 0.5 percent, maltose 0.2 percent, neutralizers 0.05 percent and pond water 20 ppm (parts per million).
Research states that over 70 percent of milk in the country does not conform to the standards set by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The National Survey on Milk Adulteration 2011 found that due to lack of hygiene and sanitation in milk handling and packaging, detergents used during cleaning find their way into the milk. Other contaminants like urea, salt, sugar, starch and even formalin are used to increase the thickness and viscosity of milk and as preservative.
The Indian Council of Medical Research reports that adulterants in milk can have hazardous impact on health in the long term.
Holi hai! But not in your sweets
That bright yellow piece of barfi or orange laddoo, arranged neatly in the display window of the neighbourhood mithaiwala is undoubtedly tempting.
But think twice before you reach out to the sweet. It may be laden with a high dose of harmful synthetic colours, including dyes not permitted for human use, a nationwide survey has revealed.
Samples of sweets and savouries like namkeens collected from all over the country and analysed for the type of colours used has shown that both permitted and non-permitted food colours are being used rampantly.
In all, 64.8 per cent of the samples either had permitted colours much beyond the regulatory limit or contained non-permitted colours.
A total of 2,409 samples were analysed, of which 58 per cent of the eatables exceeded the maximum allowable concentration limit of 100 milligrams per kg, while 16.4 per cent contained non-permitted colours.
Researchers also studied intake of colours through food items among different age groups.
Consuming eatables with excessive amounts of colours can trigger neurological and nervous system disorders. Some of them are known to cause attention deficit and hyperactive disorder among children.
“Intake of colours among Indians is definitely higher than European and American populations and hence Indians are at higher health risks,†said Dr Mukul Das, food and chemical toxicologist from the CSIRIndian Institute of Toxicology Research (CSIR-IITR), Lucknow, who led the study.
“Most of the sweets, namkeens and bakery products we consume come from unorganised sector where there is no control on the use of colours. Most of them use aromatic dyes meant to colour wool or textiles and they contain toxic heavy metals such as lead and cadmium,†said Dr Thuppil Venkatesh, head of the Bangalore-based National Referral Centre for Lead Poisoning in India.
The IITR study covered 16 states in four regions of the country. The results will be published soon in international publication, Journal of Food Science. The samples were collected from halwais and sweetmeat shops that sell locally prepared sweets. Branded samples were not collected.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India permits use of eight synthetic colours in specified food commodities at a uniform level of 100 mg per kg/litre. This limit, experts say, is unscientific because internationally approved Acceptable Daily Intake of food colours varies from 0.1 to 25 mg per kg body weight per day.
- While sweet makers may be buying permitted food colours, they are simply ignorant about the regulatory limit,†Dr Venkatesh pointed out.
- Jalebi is the worst culprit. Consumer should not get carried away by misleading labels like kesar barfi because there is no saffron in it,†he added. The so-called silver foil used to decorate sweets is nothing but toxic derivative of lead and plastics.
- €œWe need to create awareness about the use of permitted colours so that they are properly used. And also come down heavily on those violating the rules,†consumer rights activist Bejon Misra said. “People should also be made aware that all non-permitted colours contain carcinogens.â€
Researchers said over the years, the use of permitted colours has gone up. The use of non-permitted colours now is much lower compared to previous surveillance studies in which adulteration with non-permitted dyes was found to be in the range of 31-60 per cent. But the overall adulteration (64.8 per cent) remains a cause of concern.
Out of 8 colours permitted to be used in India, four were detected in food samples. The levels of Tartrazine detected in the analysed samples ranged from 12.5 to 1091 mg per kg, followed by SSYFCF (12.0 to 1610 mg per kg), Carmoisine (11.7 to 911 mg per kg) and Ponceau 4R (10.9 to 716 mg per kg). The median levels of use of all the four permitted colours exceeded the prescribed limit of 100 mg per kg.
When intake pattern was studied among 790 people across different age groups, it was found that consumption of coloured food items was maximum through cereal-based sweets (66 to 74 grams per day) followed by milk-based sweets (45 to 59 grams per day) and savouries (42 to 63 grams per day). The intake of all the commodities was the maximum among adolescents.
But think twice before you reach out to the sweet. It may be laden with a high dose of harmful synthetic colours, including dyes not permitted for human use, a nationwide survey has revealed.
Samples of sweets and savouries like namkeens collected from all over the country and analysed for the type of colours used has shown that both permitted and non-permitted food colours are being used rampantly.
In all, 64.8 per cent of the samples either had permitted colours much beyond the regulatory limit or contained non-permitted colours.
A total of 2,409 samples were analysed, of which 58 per cent of the eatables exceeded the maximum allowable concentration limit of 100 milligrams per kg, while 16.4 per cent contained non-permitted colours.
Researchers also studied intake of colours through food items among different age groups.
Consuming eatables with excessive amounts of colours can trigger neurological and nervous system disorders. Some of them are known to cause attention deficit and hyperactive disorder among children.
“Intake of colours among Indians is definitely higher than European and American populations and hence Indians are at higher health risks,†said Dr Mukul Das, food and chemical toxicologist from the CSIRIndian Institute of Toxicology Research (CSIR-IITR), Lucknow, who led the study.
“Most of the sweets, namkeens and bakery products we consume come from unorganised sector where there is no control on the use of colours. Most of them use aromatic dyes meant to colour wool or textiles and they contain toxic heavy metals such as lead and cadmium,†said Dr Thuppil Venkatesh, head of the Bangalore-based National Referral Centre for Lead Poisoning in India.
The IITR study covered 16 states in four regions of the country. The results will be published soon in international publication, Journal of Food Science. The samples were collected from halwais and sweetmeat shops that sell locally prepared sweets. Branded samples were not collected.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India permits use of eight synthetic colours in specified food commodities at a uniform level of 100 mg per kg/litre. This limit, experts say, is unscientific because internationally approved Acceptable Daily Intake of food colours varies from 0.1 to 25 mg per kg body weight per day.
- While sweet makers may be buying permitted food colours, they are simply ignorant about the regulatory limit,†Dr Venkatesh pointed out.
- Jalebi is the worst culprit. Consumer should not get carried away by misleading labels like kesar barfi because there is no saffron in it,†he added. The so-called silver foil used to decorate sweets is nothing but toxic derivative of lead and plastics.
- €œWe need to create awareness about the use of permitted colours so that they are properly used. And also come down heavily on those violating the rules,†consumer rights activist Bejon Misra said. “People should also be made aware that all non-permitted colours contain carcinogens.â€
Researchers said over the years, the use of permitted colours has gone up. The use of non-permitted colours now is much lower compared to previous surveillance studies in which adulteration with non-permitted dyes was found to be in the range of 31-60 per cent. But the overall adulteration (64.8 per cent) remains a cause of concern.
Out of 8 colours permitted to be used in India, four were detected in food samples. The levels of Tartrazine detected in the analysed samples ranged from 12.5 to 1091 mg per kg, followed by SSYFCF (12.0 to 1610 mg per kg), Carmoisine (11.7 to 911 mg per kg) and Ponceau 4R (10.9 to 716 mg per kg). The median levels of use of all the four permitted colours exceeded the prescribed limit of 100 mg per kg.
When intake pattern was studied among 790 people across different age groups, it was found that consumption of coloured food items was maximum through cereal-based sweets (66 to 74 grams per day) followed by milk-based sweets (45 to 59 grams per day) and savouries (42 to 63 grams per day). The intake of all the commodities was the maximum among adolescents.
Appeal against using substandard food items
Imphal, March 19 2013: The Directorate of Health Services, Government of Manipur has appealed to the general public against using packaged drinking water without ISI mark and eating sub-standard ice cream with no brand name, date of manufacture, expiry date, and ingredients of the product during the Holi Sports festival.
According to a notice issued by A Bijoy Singh, Director of Health Services, Manipur, any person/itinerant vendors who sell without registration certificate and a photo identity card issued by the Registering Authority of Food Safety, Manipur, which should be displayed at a prominent place at all the times within the premises or vehicle or cart or any other place where the person carries on sale/manufacture of food items, is punishable under relevant provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 .
In another notification, Director of Health Services has instructed all the Chief Medical Officers cum Designated officers for mass publicity of the 'appeal' in the interest of public health and submit the action taken report to the Health Directorate.
According to a notice issued by A Bijoy Singh, Director of Health Services, Manipur, any person/itinerant vendors who sell without registration certificate and a photo identity card issued by the Registering Authority of Food Safety, Manipur, which should be displayed at a prominent place at all the times within the premises or vehicle or cart or any other place where the person carries on sale/manufacture of food items, is punishable under relevant provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 .
In another notification, Director of Health Services has instructed all the Chief Medical Officers cum Designated officers for mass publicity of the 'appeal' in the interest of public health and submit the action taken report to the Health Directorate.
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