‘Speed up pepper adulteration probe’

Mumbai, June 18:  

The Madhya Pradesh-based Kalimirch Vyaapari Association has urged the Commissioner of Food Safety, Kerala to expedite its investigation into adulteration of pepper at warehouses of the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange in Kerala and submit its report soon.

In a letter addressed to Biju Prabhakar, Commissioner of Food Safety, Kerala, the Association highlighted the delay of over five months in testing black pepper sealed at NCDEX-authorised warehouses for traces of mineral oil. The 6,800 tonnes of pepper locked up at the warehouse is valued at Rs 300 crore.

In December, the Food Safety Authority sealed the spic after there were complaints of mineral oil in pepper delivered at the warehouse. The Authority appointed the Spices Board to conduct the test on entire stock of 6,800 tonnes, rather than taking random sample. It is reliably learnt that the Board has already submitted a report to the authority after testing 1,000 tonnes of pepper lying at the warehouse.

“We would like to draw your attention… in the whole issue which is grave and has crucial impact on the financial health of the members of KVA. The members are undergoing grave mental harassment and anxiety in view of the delay (in investigation),” said Pradeep Acharya, Vice-President of the association.

Through this communication, the association members request for submission of the report (of Spice Board) which is required to be submitted statutorily to initiate appropriate action by the KVA member, he said.

Earlier, the Association has filed a writ petition in the Madhya Pradesh High Court against the NCDEX, National Securities Depository, Central Depository Service and Ministry of Consumer Affairs for defaulting on pepper delivery for contracts which expired on January 5.

Ban on milk items imports from China may extend for 1 more yr

India had imposed ban on Chinese milk and its products in September 2008 due to presence of melamine
 An inter-ministerial panel has recommended extending ban on imports of milk and its products from China for one more year as the neighbouring country has not provided any data addressing the safety concerns.
India had imposed ban on Chinese milk and its products in September 2008 due to presence of melamine, used for making plastics and fertiliser. The ban has been extended every year and will expire on June 23, this year.
"Ban on import of milk and milk products from China may be extended for a period of one year from June 23, 2013 unless there are dependable reports available about a significant improvement in the situation," said an advisory issued by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) after the inter-ministerial committee (IMC) meeting.
The committee, headed by FSSAI chief, met early this month to review the ban on Chinese milk products like chocolates and chocolate products, candies, confectionary, and food preparations made with milk or milk solids.
"The IMC recommended extension of ban because China has not been able to provide required data showing improvement in the situation with regard to milamine content," a senior FSSAI official said.
However, the final call on this issue will be taken by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) under the Commerce Ministry, he added.
More than a dozen countries in Asia and Africa have banned milk and dairy product imports from China due to melamine content, the dangerous chemical that can cause kidney stones as well as failure of the organ.
India, the world's largest milk producer, does not import milk products from China, but the ban is being imposed as a preventive measure.
The country's milk production is estimated to be 133 million tonne in 2012-13.

Punjab govt constitutes Punjab FDA by unifying food & drug departments

In a major step towards bringing the food and drug departments under a common regulatory body on the lines of Gujarat and Maharashtra, the Punjab government recently constituted the Punjab food and drug administration (FDA) by bringing both the Punjab state drug controlling authority and food authority under one roof.
With a view to streamline the work of this unified regulatory body in accordance with the respective laws, the state government last week appointed Husan Lal who earlier served as the secretary, social security, and managing director of Punjab Health Systems Corporation, as the first commissioner of the state FDA. With this strategic re-organisation, Punjab state joins the group of select few states in the country like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir to streamline and unify the two important departments under the same umbrella.
Earlier, a high level delegation headed by Rupanjali Karthik, additional secretary, department of health and family welfare, government of Punjab had visited Gujarat FDCA in October last year to understand and gauge the effective ways of running the administration, prior to undergoing this change. Ajay Singla, state drug controller of the Punjab drug department, who was also a part of this delegation informed that this move signals the changing regulatory dynamics in the state, which will further help in strengthening the regulatory and administrative apparatus to meet new challenges.
With this reshuffling in the regulatory set up, the Punjab FDA will now be the central authority in the state overlooking the smooth functioning and monitoring of the various rules and regulations pertaining to the concerned Acts. “By unifying the two important departments under the same authority we will be able to implement the rules and regulations under the D&C Act and FSSAI Act more effectively throughout the state. Especially since the regulatory requirements and mechanisation for the implementation of both the Acts are almost in the same lines, helping us to effectively scrape the bottlenecks and other complications arising out of dual regulatory body,” Singla added.
According to Dr H G Koshia, commissioner, Gujarat Food & Drugs Control Administration, as a regulator it is more effective to regulate and monitor the food and the drugs departments under a common regulatory body. Further he pointed out that ever since the successful establishment of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, more states across the country are strongly considering to unify their food and drug departments under the same body for better administrative purpose.
It is reported that the state of Karnataka is seriously looking into the possibility of unifying the two important departments under the state health ministry under a uniform authority on the lines of Gujarat FDCA.

CAIT urges Azad to evolve scheme to compound small, unharmful offenses

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) urged health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to evolve a scheme to compound offenses, under which food business operators facing court cases for acts that are small in nature or unharmful under the Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Act, 1954 can compound the offenses by paying a token amount and get themselves acquitted of the offense registered against them.
The Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Act, 1954, was the predecessor of the Food Safety and Standards Authority Act, 2006, which came into effect on August 4, 2011. A copy of CAIT's communication to the minister has also been sent to K Chandramouli, chairman, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the country's apex food regulator.
B C Bhartia, CAIT's national president, and Praveen Khandelwal, the secretary general of the traders' body, stated, “Food businesses in different states of the country are administered by the state Food and Drugs Administration (FDA). A huge number of cases are pending in courts of law across the country. These are of petty offenses and are neither very grave nor have not caused grievous injury to the health of the consumers.”
“Many such cases are about twenty years old and are yet to progress beyond the initial stage. With the scrapping of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954, there is prime-facie no merit in continuing to fight cases registered under the said Act. Therefore, all such cases must be compounded,” the duo added in its written communication to Azad.
The trade leaders also suggested that if compounding of cases is not feasible, either a fast-track court or arbitration or reconciliation proceedings may be initiated to clear all the pending cases registered under PFA. “If this suggestion is implemented, it will help in clearing the waiting list of cases in the trial stage across the country,” added Bhartia and Khandelwal

Dinamalar & Dinakaran News

Banned pesticide residues found in vegetable samples

In public interest: The findings are being made public not to make the people panic but to look to safer alternatives.

The Kerala Agricultural University has found “dangerous levels” of pesticide residue in key vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, vegetable cowpea (achinga), amaranthus red, small red onions, tomatoes, green chillies and curry leaves, among others.

The residue includes that of the banned Profenofos, which falls into the yellow category (second level of pesticides in the toxicity classification) and which has translaminar action (the toxin entering the plant system primarily by roots, and transported to locations throughout the plant, where it can affect those who consume the vegetables).

It has been banned in Kerala for nearly three years now. The pesticide is allowed in India only in cotton and tea and in other parts of the world, it is used only in cotton.

The results came from tests carried out by the Pesticide Residue Research and Analytical Laboratory, Vellayani near Thiruvananthapuram. The findings have been put up on the Kerala Agricultural University’s website http://www.kerala agriculture.gov.in

The banned pesticide residue was found mostly in gooseberries, green chilli, okra (bhindi), curry leaves, mint leaves and coriander leaves, said Thomas Biju Mathew, principal investigator for the project.

“Production and Marketing of Safe-to-Eat Vegetables for Sale through Government Outlets”.

He said that the results were being made public not to make the people panic but to look to safer alternatives. One of the highlights of the findings was that most of the pesticides belonged to the surface contact category and were not systemic.

The results are for 40 types of vegetables, samples of which were drawn from the Thiruvananthapuram markets between January 1 and March 1, 2013.

The KAU website also suggests methods to get rid of the residue. For example, one suggestion is to separate cauliflower leaves and keep the separated flowers dipped in salt or vinegar solution for 10 minutes and to pass them through repeated washing. The vinegar solution can be made of 20 ml of vinegar in a litre of water or 20 grams of salt in a litre of water.

Vegetables have been placed in three categories according to the level of pesticide residue in them. The most dangerous category has been detected in vegetables like bhindi, drumsticks, little gourd, red and yellow capsicum, gooseberries and coriander leaves.

The less dangerous category of pesticides has been found in beetroot, brinjal, carrot and garlic.

The farm produce that has been found not to carry pesticide residue comprises tapioca, mangoes, cucumber, colocasia, beans, ginger, big onion, capsicum (green), nendran bananas, ash gourd, pumpkins, pineapples, and green peas.

The website does not specify the level of pesticide residue in the individual items but the director of the laboratory, which is under KAU, S. Nazeema Beevi, said that the samples had been drawn over the first quarter of the year and the situation may not remain the same for the next quarter.

She said that the vegetables had been categorised as having dangerous levels of pesticide because they exceeded the maximum residue limit fixed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India.

Case against Hrithik Roshan and Priyanka Chopra for misleading advertisements

The two Bollywood superstars, along with eight cricketers including Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni, face the ire of the Department of Food Safety

Bollywood stars and cricketers do tons of advertisements every year. At times, it turns out that the number of movies that a star does, or the number of matches a cricketer plays is far less than the number of ad films they do! At this pace, it seems like they are becoming careless about the kind of products they endorse.

The Department of Food Safety, Uttarakhand has lodged a complaint against a number of celebrities including Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra and eight other cricketers for promoting adulterated products. The cricketers who were mentioned are Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Virendra Sehwag and Zaheer Khan. The government has also filed a case against Sahara honcho Subrata Roy since the contaminated products were found at his shop, Sahara-Q.

Wethinks these folks better follow Aamir Khan’s example and beware of the stuff they advertisement the next time!