Adulterated pepper worth Rs 34 cr to be destroyed

KOCHI: The food safety department may soon issue orders for destroying adulterated pepper worth around Rs 34 crore, after it detected presence of mineral oil in the samples collected from two warehouses in the district.
The department had sealed 5,300 tonnes of pepper stored in six warehouses registered with the National Commodity & Derivative Exchange (NCDEX), following complaint of adulteration by an agency, which purchased the substance.
Presence of mineral oil was found in 88 out of the 101 samples picked up from warehouses of the state warehousing corporation in Paravoor and a private agency at Edathala near Aluva. As per the lab test, conducted in a laboratory approved by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), 850 tonnes out of the total 1,000 tonnes were contaminated.
"As per the Food Safety and Standards Act, the pepper is unfit for consumption since it was adulterated," said state food safety commissioner Biju Prabhakar.
However, pepper traders claimed that the practice of mixing mineral oil to pepper is on for quite some time and it does not have any health issues. They also expressed fears that the issue will have serious repercussions in the pepper trade.
Meanwhile, sources said the food safety department is firm on its stand though the complainant has now expressed willingness to withdraw the complaint. The department is the authority to take a final call on the issue and the spices board has no role to play in it, said a source with spices board.
The food safety department is planning to complete the process of collecting samples from rest of the warehouses by August-end. It is presently in the process of picking up samples from warehouses at Cherthala and Kodungallur, sources said.

Kochi: The safety food department may soon issue orders for destroying pepper worth of around Rs34 crore after finding presence of mineral oil in the pepper stored in two warehouses in Ernakulam district.
The presence of mineral oil was found in 88 out of the 101 samples picked up from the warehouses of the State Warehousing Corporation in Paravoor and a private agency at Edathala near Aluva. As per the lab test, 850 tonnes out of the total 1000 tonnes were contaminated with mineral oil. The tests were conducted in a laboratory approved by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
The samples were picked up from the warehouses in May this year by the food safety officials in the presence of the representatives of Spices Board and National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX).
"In the lab tests, presence of mineral oil was found in 88 samples. As per the Food Safety and Standards Act the pepper, which was adulterated with mineral oil, can't be allowed to use for the purpose of human consumption," said Biju Prabhakar, state food safety commissioner.
Meanwhile, pepper traders said that mineral oil has been using for quite some time and it does not have any health issues. They expressed fears that the issue will have serious repercussions in the pepper trade.

Hygiene a casualty in meal scheme, says apex court plea

Bench issues notice to Centre and 12 States

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Centre and 12 States seeking their response on steps taken to ensure cleanliness in the midday meal scheme and to prevent incidents like the one that occurred last month in a government primary school in a Bihar village, where 23 children died after eating contaminated food.

The States to which a Bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice Ranjana Desai issued notice, returnable in four weeks, on petitions filed by Antarashtriya Manav Adhikaar Nigraani and Sanjeeb Panigrahi, are Bihar, Odihsa, West Bengal, Assam, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Jharkhand.

The petitioners said “there have been a number of deaths and incidents of vomiting by children in different parts of the country, mostly in Bihar, Odisha, Haryana, West Bengal, after eating unhygienic mid-day meal.”

In over 12 lakh government-run and aided schools across the country, children received free, cooked lunch every day but “they are constantly exposed to the risk of food poisoning and related health hazards due to a lack of mid-day meal infrastructure and proper monitoring of the scheme,” the petitioners said.

When children fell sick, “there is a backlash against the whole programme from parents and teachers.” There was also a failure to meet standards in terms of calorific value of meals, quality of food, and micronutrients. It was noticed that inspection of food grains was not being undertaken.

The petitioners sought a direction to the respondents and authorities to enforce procedures in the interest of hygiene and safety of children, and to initiate criminal proceedings against the persons responsible for death of children caused by contaminated or poisonous meal.

---

Incidents of vomiting and death mostly in Bihar, Odisha, Haryana and West Bengal

Lack of infrastructure and monitoring plagues scheme

---

Smoked out

FDA officials hunt down shops storing and selling banned tobacco substances such as gutkha, send seized tobacco to factory in Pune, where they are burnt to generate electricity for the region

Tobacco addicts beware. If anyone is caught chewing tobacco that is either flavoured, scented or mixed with any addictives, officers of the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) could lodgean FIR against the individual from now on and get him arrested.After the state government called for a ban on these products for a period of one year recently, the FDA Thane officials have launched a mission to seize such products. So far gutkha and tobacco products worth Rs 4 lakh have been seized from nine different shops in Mumbai.

The FDA Thane officials have seized gutka and tobacco products worth R4 lakh from nine differnt shops in Mumbai.
On July 20, the state had banned the sale of certain tobacco products for a period of one year under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 -- prohibiting the manufacture, distribution, sale and consumption of these products. SK Shere, Thane Joint Commissioner, FDA, said his colleagues have the authority to lodge an FIR against any person caught with the banned products. “In our recent drive, we seized products worth Rs 4 lakh from various manufacturers and suppliers of gutkha and flavoured supari,” he said.
He said while owners of several pan shops had staged a protest against this ban, the authorities are determined to crack the whip on anyone found in possession of these banned substances. The tobacco products that are seized are generally sent to a factory in Pune where they are incinerated to generate electricity to power homes. On Saturday, the FDA officials were seen sending 25 tonnes of tobacco seized by them to the Pune factory. “It is good if some homes benefit from these seized and illegal products,” said Shere.

Headmasters' association calls for boycott of midday meals scheme

AURANGABAD: The Marathwada Headmasters' Association (MHA) - which counts 35,000 headmasters as members, including 7,000 from the eight districts of Marathwada - has decided to boycott the midday meal scheme from Friday, demanding that the teaching staff be exempted from the work of implementing the scheme. As per Union government guidelines, headmasters and teaching staff are supposed to look after the scheme.
"We have decided to boycott the government's midday meal programme, since it is taking a direct toll on the academic routine of headmasters. And there is always a risk of facing punishment if anything goes wrong," Yunus Patel, president, Marathwada Headmasters' Association, told TOI on Saturday.
"We have repeatedly requested the government to involve teachers only in academic work and not cooking and feeding of midday meals to students. We are not against the scheme, but all we want is that an agency should be appointed to take care of the midday meals programme, so that the headmasters do the work they are hired for," added Patel. He said that the boycott will continue till the government comes up with reforms in its policies related to midday meals.
Aurangabad division deputy director education Sukhdev Dere downplayed the MHA boycott. "Only the headmasters of the private aided and unaided schools are participating in the boycott, whereas all the government and local administration-run schools are effectively implementing the midday meal scheme," Dere told TOI.
The headmasters have been directed to supervise the cooking and feeding of the midday meals to the students. "No one has asked them to cook, as is being claimed by them. We are waiting for the government nod to initiate action against the headmasters who are defying the directives," added Dere.
After the midday meal mishap in Bihar claimed the life of 23 students in July, the commissionorate of the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) had shot notices to the education department, the women's welfare department and child development programme officers across the state to take extra care in the preparation and serving of midday meals across schools. The notices directed the officials concerned to follow the norms laid down in Schedule IV of the notification of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, dated August 2011.
Citing the notification, education officers for primary education, secondary education, municipal corporations, municipal councils, officials of the women and child welfare department and child development programme officers across the state were asked to make sure that the food business operators (FBOs; the ones preparing and supplying mid-day meals) strictly follow hygienic and sanitary practices, including food safety measures.