FOOD SAFETY LATEST: Jun 30, 2013

Jun 30, 2013

Licence of five eateries cancelled

The special squads engaged by the Commissioner of Food Safety continued inspections at various food business operations, including 118 eateries across the State on Saturday, as part of an intensive drive to ensue food safety and hygiene standards.

Following inspections, the Food Safety wing has suspended the Food Business Operation licence of five establishments, which were found to be operating in extremely unhygienic situations, in violation of the mandatory 30-point food safety and hygiene standards introduced by the Commissioner of Food Safety.

Improvement notices were issued to 55 hotels while a fine amount to the tune of Rs.1.02 lakh was collected from 17 hotel owners.

After the launch of the State-wide raids, food safety officials have so far visited 982 eateries and issued improvement notices to 530 of them.

Eighty three eateries have so far been issued closure notices.

Three hotels shut, 38 get notices in food safety drive

Guidelines include a 30-point agenda for maintaining hygiene

Three hotels have bee issued closure notice and 38 others have been put on notice for improvement in week-long raids on hotels and bakeries in Ernakulam district by Food Safety and Standards officers.

The hotels that have been shut are: Lavanya at Kaloor, Rajadhani at Tripunithura and Your Choice at Irimpanam.

The authorities realised a fine of Rs. 1.80 lakh during the drive in which 73 hotels were inspected.

Fines ranged up to Rs.10,000, said an official. The hotels that have been fined include repeat offenders and the fines are based on the seriousness of the offences.

An official said that there were repeat offenders and compliance level was around 50 per cent. Hotels found guilty of violating the norms for hygiene and food standards are issued notices and they acknowledge the receipt of the notices, said the official.

The official said that this week’s raids were a follow-up action on the guidelines issued by FSSA in August last year. The guidelines included a 30-point agenda for maintaining hygiene in hotels and eateries.

The places where raids were conducted include Ernakulam, Aluva, Kalamssery, Tripunithura, Perumbavoor, Thirvankulam, Koothattukulam, Vazhakkulam, Moovattupuzha and Kothamangalam.

The official said that no fines were imposed on erring hoteliers during the raids and inspections three months in view of the shift from old food safety regime under Prevention of Food Adulteration Act to the new regime. No cases have been taken up for prosecution so far under the FSSA in the district.

Food safety officers had raided ice-making plants last month resulting in the closure of three ice plants after many of the samples tested positive for formalin and ammonium. The closed ice plants were allowed to reopen only after they were fined.

Official says there are repeat offenders and compliance level is 50 per cent.

Notice to 38 hotels for serving stale Food

Kochi Corporation health standing committee chairman T K Ashraf (Left) along with officials of the Health Department displaying the stale food itemss

The officials of the Food Safety Department have conducted raids in 73 hotels in the city during the past one week. As many as 38 hotels were served notice, while three hotels were shut down.
According to officials, three hotels were closed down after unhygienic conditions were reported from there. The department also have collected Rs 1,80,000 as fine from various hotels.
“Three of the hotels were located in Kaloor, Thripunithara and Hill Palace, respectively. During the raid we found that food was prepared in very unhygienic conditions. Plates were not washed, waste was dumped without care, and workers were wearing dirty clothes. The checking would continue as per the food safety act,” an official said.
Officials said that people should be wary of eating food from hotels as most hotels add synthetic colour to the food. “Even though there are natural colours available in the market, hotels use synthetic colours. About 70 per cent of the non-vegetarian food and 40 per cent of the vegetarian food are prepared using colours. This is very harmful, since chances of cancer and infertility occurring are very high. These colours were so sticky that we had to wash our hands several times after collecting samples from the hotels,” officials said.
Food safety officials also found that several bakeries and hotels were using milk which was two to three days old, which actually gets expired in a day.

Manufacturers cash in on loopholes, sell nicotine products openly

The ban on the storage, manufacture and sale of gutka and other tobacco and nicotine products - implemented in almost all parts of the country - aimed at protecting public health and reducing the cases of oral cancer in the country.

The ban comes under the regulation 2,3, 4 of the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on Sale) Act, 2011. But a visit to a pan shop punctures all the tall claims of the government as manufacturers and vendors, taking advantage of the loopholes in the ban, are selling the banned products.

How can the government frame a policy so blindly that the manufacturers are able to flout it openly right under their nose?

Gutka is a mixture of 10 percent tobacco and 90 percent beetle-nut. And the ban was imposed on a food product (gutka), which contains nicotine. Although beetle-nut independently is carcinogenic, defective and addictive still it is not banned because it does not contain nicotine, and is sold freely in the form of pan masala. And the chewable tobacco (zarda), which again contains nicotine, can also be sold separately as tobacco is an agricultural product and cannot be banned when sold separately.

Were the laws to ban gutka just a show-off? There are many such questions that are being raised on this issue. When this citizen journalist asked about this issue to VB Patil, Food and safety commissioner, Karnataka, he said, “We are sensitizing people on this issue, and our field officers are working on this issue.”

The government is taking minimal interest in framing and implementing such laws, which are meant for public welfare. Dr. Pankaj Chaturvedi, head and neck surgeon, Tata Memorial Hospital, and a anti-tobacco activist, said, “The ban on gutka was largely for the vulnerable group like children and ladies. The hardcore addicts of gutka cannot be stopped, they somehow manage to take get it. They almost pay double or triple the amount to get it.”

He claimed the consumption has decreased as the prices have gone up after manufacturers started selling pan masala and zarda in two different sachets.

All the banned and prohibited items are being supplied, just with a small change. This is all because of the laws that are not being implemented properly. The current laws on Food safety regulation and Food safety act of India are not correctly framed. There is a need to amend these laws, and to implement the ban on gutka in an effective manner.

A distributor of pan masala and tobacco says, “Gutka was banned but we are selling pan masala (a mouth freshener) and zarda (chewable tobacco) in separate sachets; it is not at all illegal. It is a good complementary for gutka and the demand for it is also high.” How can the government frame a policy so blindly that the manufacturers are able to flout it openly right under their nose?

- See more at: http://www.merinews.com/article/manufacturers-cash-in-on-loopholes-sell-nicotine-products-openly/15887399.shtml#sthash.2foaXzGA.dpuf