‘Fresh and pure’ out of Milma sachets

A glass of “fresh and pure” milk in the morning prepares you for the daily grind. But drinking Milma milk, a staple of Keralites, may not be that helpful.

The Kerala High Court has taken Milma to task for plugging its milk as “fresh and pure” when its sachets contains reconstituted skimmed milk powder.

On Monday, the court asked Milma (Kerala Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.) to remove the imprint “fresh and pure” from the sachets and instead print that they contained skimmed milk.

Milma should inform the court about the action taken by next week. Otherwise, the court will order that the federation has been defrauding its consumers.

A Division Bench, comprising Justice S. Siri Jagan and Justice K. Ramakrishnan, made the oral observation during the hearing of an appeal filed by Martin Paiva against a single judge’s verdict allowing Milma to increase the milk price.

The court had earlier observed that Milma, if it did not delete the two words from its sachets, would be banned from selling milk as fresh milk.

When counsel for Milma told the court that the description “fresh and pure” on its milk sachets was part of a “mnemonic symbol” owned by the National Dairy Development Board, the court orally observed that the Board was then abetting the federation to defraud its consumers.

In an affidavit, Milma said the Board and it had an agreement on the use of this symbol. It was a trademark registered in the name of the Board. Most milk federations and unions in the country were using the symbol on their milk sachets. The words “fresh and pure” were not Milma’s creation.

The affidavit said that if skimmed milk powder were not to be added, toned and double-toned milk within the standards prescribed in the Food Safety Standard Regulations could not be produced in Kerala. The milk produced by crossbred cows in the State contained a lower SNF (solid non-fat) content. If the content were to be lower than prescribed, the regulations would be violated. The NDDB was importing the skimmed milk powder. Packing of milk without processing and distributing it were impossible.

Countering the arguments, the petitioner said Milma was bound to indicate the nature of milk in its sachets, as the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011, prescribed. Milma should mention B for buffalo milk, C for cow milk and G for goat milk on its sachets.

Food safety department to conduct raids

KOZHIKODE: The district food safety office is planning to conduct an extensive drive at hospitals and educational institutions to check the quality of food being served in its canteens.
The food safety office has decided to conduct surprise inspections on the basis of growing instances of food poising being reported from various parts of the district. It will take stringent measures against those who are selling unhygienic food.
The drive will be carried out in all the hospital canteens and hostels. The raid at the canteens attached to the hospitals in the district is to ensure that the patients and bystanders get the good quality food and to curb the spreading of diseases in monsoon. The drive will be held to increase the standard of food being served to the students.
The officials will first serve notice to improve the quality and hygienic conditions of the hostels and canteens if it is found to be below standard. Imposing hefty fine and closure of the shops will be made if the shop owners fail to take up quality improvement measures.
District food safety officer Muhammed Rafi said that the drive is planned considering the seriousness of the situation. "The squads have been conducting regular inspections at the various restaurants and other shops. The special drive at the hospitals and educational institutions are being planned for ensuring public safety,'' he said.
"We don't wish to announce the date as it is a surprise raid,'' he said.

Eateries dodge food safety ring

Roadside eateries in the city expose citizens to various diseases by hardly abiding by any food safety norm.
The more worrying part is the health department’s food safety wing has miserably failed to bring such eateries under the purview of Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. Moreover, absence of food analysts in the state laboratory delays testing of samples.
While visiting a small eatery near Shaheed Smarak Road, this correspondent found that its workers wash dishes with plain water with no soap or detergent powder around. The scene at another small eatery on SP Verma Road was frightening. The workers there reuse water to wash the dishes in dirty areas. Owners of both eateries said they were not registered with the health department’s food safety wing.
The state’s apathetic attitude towards implementation of the food safety act was glaring when a senior health officer admitted that barely 10 per cent of eateries with an annual turnover of less than Rs 12 lakh had registered themselves with the its safety wing.
Ashish Kumar, the designated officer of the food safety wing, said: “Though we have been able to ensure that big eateries with an annual turnover of more than Rs 12 lakh get licences from us, we somehow have not been able to implement the provision of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, that mandates all food business units with less than Rs 12 lakh annual turnover to get themselves registered with the authority. Till now, only a meagre 10 per cent of small eateries in the state have registered themselves with us.”
IMA state president Rajiv Ranjan Prasad said: “Eating unhygienic or adulterated food can lead to diseases such as diarrhoea, gastrointestinal problems, which can affect a person’s liver, kidney, eye and other vital organs. It is pathetic that the food safety act is not implemented in the state. Lack of proper mechanism lets people in food business work in unhygienic conditions.”
Diwakar Tejaswi, a physician, said: “Seventy per cent of diseases in Bihar is caused by unhygienic food and water. Typhoid, Hepatitis E and jaundice are mostly caused by eating unhygienic food.”
On registration of vendors, the officer added: “Not a single vendor has got himself/herself registered with us. It is not possible for us to register the vendors because we do not have data on their exact numbers. First, Patna Municipal Corporation has to identify the vendors, only then can we register them.”
The officer admitted that there was a norm under the act that mandates food vendors to register themselves with the food safety wing.
Asked how much food samples were collected in the past year, the officer could not specify but said: “Every month, we have set a target of collecting at least 10 samples, which we meet. The absence of food analysts in our Agamkuan laboratory forces us to send the samples for testing to Mineral Area Development Authority (Mada) laboratory in Dhanbad. Mada sends us the test reports in 20-25 days.”
However, when this correspondent sought to know about the findings of packaged drinking water samples, which the department officials had collected in the first week of June, the officer said the reports were yet to come.
Sources said the food safety act mandates the testing report be sent to the authority concerned within 14 days of the receipt of the samples so that prompt action can be taken. But the Dhanbad laboratory takes 20-25 days to send the test report.
ACT, CRIME & PUNISHMENT
What a food kiosk owner can do: Section 31 of the act states: No person shall commence or carry on any food business except under a licence. However, it shall not apply to a petty manufacturer who himself manufactures or sells any article of food or a petty retailer, hawker, itinerant vendor or a temporary stall holder or small-scale or cottage or such other industries relating to food business or tiny food business operator. But they shall register themselves with the authority concerned
What s/he faces for supplying sub-standard food: Under Section 50: Any person who sells to the purchaser’s prejudice any food which is not in compliance with the provisions of this act shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding Rs 5 lakh
For small food joint owners, the penalty shall not exceed Rs 25000 Under Section 56:
Any person who, whether by himself or by any other person on his behalf, manufactures or processes any article of food for human consumption under unhygienic or unsanitary conditions, shall be liable to a penalty which may extend to Rs 1 lakh

How safe is your food?

If your food isn’t safe, then don’t trust it. Placards are an easy way to spread a message and students are always ready to help

‘Food safety is your right!’ With this as the theme, a rally was held here on Sunday, organised by Consumer Association of India along with Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. The rally was aimed to bring awareness about food safety and unsafe food among the people.
Consumer Association of India, which is working towards the empowerment of consumer rights, managed to rope in quite a large crowd.
Speaking to City Express, one of the organisers of CAI said, “Food safety has been an issue for everyone at some point of time or the other. Most of them do not have the awareness on safe food and the food standards act. In order to create awareness among the masses, we joined hands with Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and with the Food Safety Department of Tamil Nadu Government from last year.”
He added, “After joining hands with FSSAI, we had a mass contact education programme over the last six months under the title ‘Food Safety, Standards and Unsafe Food’ in five districts of Tamil Nadu including Chennai, Vellore, Madurai, Coimbatore and Tiruchy. Through this programme we brought awareness to more than 6,000 people in those districts.”
“The programme has been successful in creating awareness not only among the everyday consumers but also among Food Business Operators and FSSAI is satisfied with the results,” he added.
As part of the valedictory function of this mass contact education programme, the rally was conducted. Nearly 400 student food safety champions and members from the Consumer Club of Ethiraj College participated in this rally. The rally started at Rajaratnam Stadium and ended at Ethiraj College, heading throughRukmani Lakshmipathi Salai, P V Cherian Crescent Salai and Ethiraj Salai.
Kalyani Rajaraman, Project Manager, Food Safety Programme and G Rajan, Secretary General, CAI and officials from the Food Safety Department were present during the occasion.