More than 90 pc mangoes in market infested with harmful chemicals

The Delhi High Court rapped the government for not pursuing regular inspections to check the food safety standards and directed them to file a report after checking whether any pesticides or chemicals are being sprayed in the Mangoes and other fruits or vegetables in the Capital.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice Jayant Nath directed the Agricultural ministry to carry on surprise checks in the Azadpur Market as well as other wholesale vegetable and fruit markets and file their report in the court by May 29.
The Court directed the government to find out whether any pesticides, chemicals are being sprayed added on fruits, especially mangoes.
The court directed the government to take immediate action against those found guilty of spraying colour or chemicals on fruits and veggies.
The Court asked the ministry why they are not doing any regular checks in this regard.
'It is a continuing process. You don't have to be told every time. There are a whole set of guidelines. You have to implement them on regular basis,' the court remarked.
This is a serious issue which needs to be addressed immediately, the court said.
The court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by an NGO Consumer Voice through lawyer Sugriv Dubey who alleged that 90 per cent of mango being sold in the market this year has chemicals or artificial colours.
The sellers inject colours in the fruits and there is no check on such activity, the petitioner alleged.
The NGO alleged that more than more than 35 varieties of vegetables and fruits picked from Delhi markets were found to have pesticides and toxins beyond permissible limits.
The NGO contended that the vegetables and fruits being sold in Delhi contained poison, which can cause cancer and harm liver and nervous system, the NGO said.

Food safety department seized 55,000 gutkha pouches

INDORE: Around 55,000 of gutkha pouches worth Rs 1 lakh was seized in Indore on Wednesday by food safety department in a raid of four shops at different parts of the city. The gutkha pouches were sold at three times higher than the MRP.
Raids were conducted at Sindhi Colony, Juni Indore and Sarvate Bus stand. "Samples of Rajshri and Vimla gutkha have been collected during the raid," said food safety officer Manish Swami.
Swami said that the team reached Disha Traders in Sindhi Colony and collected 15 packets of Rajshri gutkha. One sample was collected from here. Thereafter, a team raided the godown of Kushaldas Khobani in Gali number 4 of Sindhi Colony and Jain Traders in Juni Indore and seized gutkha pouches.
Sale of gutkha is ban in the city so it is being sold in black and consumers has to pay at least three time of the printed price. Swami said the restricted material is smuggled into the city from adjoining states through different modes of transport. He said Kushaldas Khobani is a regular defaulter and gutkha was seized from his godown earlier also. The department will file a case against them and special court will decided the punishment.

China steps up inspection of meat trade after fake lamb scandal

(Reuters) - China has begun a crackdown on the sales of fake, diseased and tainted meat products after a series of scandals that have further dented public confidence in the food industry, the official Xinhua news agency said on Thursday.
It said the State Council, China's cabinet, recently ordered local government departments to step up checks on meat and processed meat products, and carry out detailed inspections of rural factories, workshops and warehouses as well as private slaughterhouses.
"The current water-injected meat, fake beef and mutton, dead livestock and other types of toxic and hazardous meat has aroused widespread concern," said the report.
"Local governments at all levels should strengthen their organization and leadership, to severely crack down on fake beef and mutton and other illegal and criminal activities."
Pork and poultry prices have suffered this year as a result of a series of food safety scandals, a bird flu outbreak and crackdown on expensive government banquets.
China has long been plagued by poor food safety standards, but many of the recent scares have involved its meat trade.
Earlier this month, the police said it had uncovered a crime ring that passed off more than $1 million in rat and small mammal meat as mutton.
It came after pictures of thousands of dead pigs dumped in rivers supplying Shanghai caused widespread outrage.
A media report last year uncovered excessive levels of hormones and antiviral drugs in chicken meat supplied to KFC, whose parent company is Yum Brands, and McDonald's.
Beijing has repeatedly called for greater inspection of food processing facilities to tackle food safety problems, but such actions appear to have done little to improve standards.
The latest clampdown will encourages local governments to offer rewards to people who inform on illegal activities.
The government also called for implementation of measures for the proper disposal of livestock that had died from disease.

Delhi awaits new facilitation centre: Licensing & registration of FBOs

THE licensing and registration of food business operators (FBOs), an exercise which is in progress in other parts of the country for the last one-and-a-half years, has still not started in New Delhi. The reason for this is said to be that the department of food is awaiting the completion of furnishing of the new facilitation centre coming up at Mayur Bhawan in Connaught Place.

It is pertinent to mention here that the deadline for licensing and registration expired, a couple of months ago, but was extended by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) till February 2014. Thus while three months of the extended deadline have already passed, the furnishing is yet to begin. Nevertheless, it has been learnt that the department has taken some steps for the giant task and appointed designated officers for the purpose of keeping an eye on the progress, once the work starts. 

K J R Burman, food safety commissioner, Delhi, "The centre at Mayur Bhawan would act as a facilitation centre for the purpose of licensing and registration for the districts where our officials would help and guide the applicants in filing of the papers." He felt that the delay was due to logistical difficulties.

Meanwhile, the biggest hurdle in the process of licensing and registration was the manpower, so the office of the Delhi food safety commissioner decided to make the whole process online. For this as well, the nod by the Food Safety and Standards authority of India (FSSAI) was still awaited by the authorities, though the State Bank of India had agreed to help the department in deposition of fees and so on.

While there were reports of the beginning of the process, Burman clarified that full-fledged operations would only start when the facilitation centre would get furnished with all the necessities. He informed that only those FBOs who operate within and outside Delhi  needed Central licences. Therefore they applied for the same and their matter was considered while the FBOs operating in Delhi needed to wait further.

He suggested that the focus of the department would remain the big players of food business having turnover of more than Rs 12 lakh, for which the licensing fee ranges from Rs 2,000 to Rs 7,500, depending upon criteria like the annual turnover in terms of money and in terms of volume or import or export of food items.

Burman said, "For those categories, FBOs need various kind of licences like regional licensing or Central licensing." At Mayur Bhawan, facilitation would be provided to FBOs for all 11 districts of New Delhi. 

Though it was still not clear as to how many FBOs would be operating in the national capital, Burman said that he expected the numbers on the lines of Mumbai, where some 1.5 lakh licensing and registrations were done so far. 

Burman said that his department had done a lot of homework and hoped that efforts put in by the department would bear fruit.

DINAMALAR & DINAKARAN NEWS

Soon, raids in fruit markets to check pesticide content

The Centre will carry out raids at fruits and vegetables market across the city to ascertain whether pesticides and chemicals were being used to ripen them. Worried over the presence of pesticide residues in fruits especially in mangoes, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Government to find out if they contained such chemicals by carrying out surprise inspections in fruits and vegetables markets.
A bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice Jayant Nath asked the Agriculture Ministry to carry out inspections to find the presence of any chemical in fruits, especially in mangoes, and take action against the persons responsible for that.
“This matter is concerned with public health and must be taken seriously. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) must hurry up with policies regarding the use of pesticides in agriculture,” the court said. While submitting before the court about presence of harmful pesticides in fruits and vegetables, advocate and petitioner Sugriva Dubey told the court on Wednesday, “Ninety nine per cent of the mangoes that we eat today are artificially grown. A chemical is applied on the fruit which triggers its growth in 12 hours. It is hazardous to health.”
The bench slammed the Government saying that the fact that this matter has been going on from last three years clearly shows sloppiness on the part of the Government. “The city Government must carry out raids or inspections in the markets and file a report within 15 days regarding the presence of pesticides,” the bench said.
Ministry of Agriculture told the court that they will submit their report within 15 days on the use of pesticides in farming. “The Governments have been asked to respond many times. We can’t wait for their reports as by the time they will file a response, the season for mangoes will be over. We need an immediate solution,” pleaded Dubey.
The petitioner alleged that mangoes brought from markets like Azadpur, Vishwas Nagar, Gazipur Mandi and IP extension had enormous amount of harmful pesticides. The petition also said that mangoes were laced with oxytocin and other chemicals like calcium carbide. The chemicals lead to various health hazards like headaches, depression, mental disorder and other diseases.
The objections on the presence of pesticide residue in fruits and vegetables being sold in the markets across the city have been raised time and again. In 2010, the high court had taken cognizance of the matter after a petition was filed. Since then, the court has been asking concerned government authorities to inquire and file a report on how to tackle this health hazard.

After drugs, zarda worth Rs 1.5cr seized at Pallel

IMPHAL: In the wake of a string of drug hauls at Pallel market in Thoubal district, which were to be sent to Myanmar via the border town of Moreh, two truckloads of zarda, also to be smuggled to the neighbouring country, was confiscated here.

Thoubal district police seized the mammoth consignment of different brands of zarda loaded in two trucks from six persons during a frisking near the gate of Pallel police station around 11.30pm on Monday.

A statement issued by Thoubal police said the value of the zarda kept in 345 cartons will be around Rs 1.5 crore in the open market. The arrested persons, along with the seized tobacco items, have been handed over to the food safety officer (Thoubal) for taking necessary action under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.

The smuggling of tobacco to Myanmar alerted security agencies manning the Imphal-Moreh section of NH-2 as Manipur has banned sale, transportation, manufacture and consumption of smokeless tobacco products.

In February this year, the state government banned manufacture, storage, transportation, distribution, display, sale and purchase of gutka, khaini, zarda, paan masala and other chewable and smokeless tobacco products.

The statement added that Thoubal district police would continue to conduct raids in order to implement the government order in the interest of public health. It also sought cooperation and support from the public. A senior police officer said there were frequent instances of shipping tobacco products to Myanmar before the ban was imposed.