SC asks for report on steps taken over adulterated milk

The Supreme Court has asked the Commissioners of Food Safety of Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to be present in court Dec 5 and inform it about the steps taken by them to curb adulteration in milk in their states.

An apex court bench of Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan and Justice A.K. Sikri Tuesday directed the personal appearance of the Commissioners of Food Safety of the four states as the court was told that these states have not taken any steps to clamp down on large-scale milk adulteration.

"We have perused the affidavits filed by the parties.

"The various states have not explained what steps they have taken for the effective implementation of the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and the rules framed thereunder," the court said.

"Non-implementation of the provisions of the Act violates the right to health and safety of the human beings guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India," it said.

"In such circumstances, we are inclined to give directions to the concerned Officer In-Charge of the Food Safety and Standards in the States/NCT of Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to be present on the next date of hearing and explain to the court how they are functioning and what effective steps they are taking to implement the provisions of the Act and the regulations and explain their accountability."

It also said the implementation of the Food Safety and Standards Act must be done in a serious manner.

Justice Radhakrishnan said: "If they are not taking any steps, it is the violation of Article 21."

The court's observation came as Anurag Tomar appearing for PIL petitioner Swami Achyutanand Tirth told the court that these states were in a denial mode and have not taken any steps to check adulteration of milk.

In the course of the hearing, the court inquired as to what steps have been taken in the wake of the 2011 report of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

As the court was told that the report was forwarded to the concerned states, the court asked if the centre was aware what action was taken on the report forwarded by it.

The counsel for the centre, Bina Tamta, sought time so that the centre could file a status report on the action taken by the state governments.

The court directed the presence of the Commissioners of Food Safety of the four states as it did not get any satisfactory response from the counsel representing them.

In 2011, the FSSAI had taken 1,791 samples from 23 states, from both urban and rural areas, and found that 68.4 percent (1,226) samples of milk were non-conforming to FSSAI standards.

The food safety and standards regulator told the court that its study also "indicated traces of detergent in some cases".

Even the centre had Oct 22, 2012, told the apex court that overwhelming quantity of milk being supplied in the market both in pouches and in loose form were not conforming to the quality standards laid under the Food Safety and Standards Act.

The court was hearing a PIL by Swami Achyutanand Tirth, head of the Bhuma Niketan Ashram in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, contending that "apathy and inaction" of the central government and the state governments in taking "effective and necessary" measures in curbing the sale of synthetic (chemically prepared) and adulterated milk was violative of the fundamental right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the constitution.

Research themes identified by the Food Safety and Standards Authority

 

1. Issues involving hygiene and safety in the agricultural supply chain traceability.
2. Hygiene and safety of traditional foods.
3. Innovative and simple methods for testing of food products in unorganised sector.
4. Safety aspect of Novel foods including genetically modified (GM) foods and processing techniques.
5. Food contamination: to provide information on chemical contaminants in food and their movement in food chain. To establish ways of reducing the level of these substances in food by identifying good practices during manufacturing processes. Development of improved and rapid methods of analysis of food contaminants.
6. Improved methods of analysis: to ensure that fully validated analytical methods are available for the Authority - survey work and to develop quality procedures for analysis and operating proficiency testing schemes to test the performance of analytical laboratories.
7. Chemical safety and toxicology, including food additives, food contact materials and risk assessment for the underlying research needed to improve risk assessment for food chemicals that are of a particular concern. To ensure that consumers are adequately protected from unsafe exposure to additives in food and chemical migration from packaging of food.
8. Risk communication: to develop ways of communicating risk so that consumers are better able to understand the risk messages put out by the Authority.
9. Hygiene and good practices in meat, fish and poultry sector.
10. Microbiological food safety: to provide information on the presence, growth, survival and elimination of micro-organisms throughout the food chain and the extent, distribution, causes and cost of food borne diseases.
11. Research on nutritional composition: to carry out research on major food constituents and their role in the health of the population. To support the Authority for providing advice to consumers on healthy balanced diet.
12. Food quality and authenticity: to investigate the authenticity of various types of food in the market and develop improved methods for checking such authenticity.
13. Food law enforcement: to help the Authority prioritise various tasks in enforcement and to raise the standards in food business.

How can consumers, NGOs and other institutions associate in food safety?

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has been established to lay down science based standards for articles of food and ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption. Under Article 16 of the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), the Authority will conduct surveys of enforcement and administration of the Act in various parts of the country, search, collect and analyse relevant information relating to food consumption and exposure of individuals risks, incidence and prevalence of biological risk, contaminants in food, residues of various contaminants etc.
The Authority is also expected to promote and issue guidelines for development of risk assessment methodologies and forward messages on health and nutritional risks to the stakeholders. Among its mandates is the task of establishing a network of information and best practices in food safety. Authority proposes to ensure that public, consumers and other stakeholders receive comprehensive information regarding food safety periodically.
An important and critical stakeholder in food safety is the consumer who is directly impacted by the safety of food in the country. It is necessary for the Authority to devise mechanisms for associating the consumer in the development of standards as well as apprising him of the emerging trends in food safety so that consumer concerns are appropriately reflected in the food safety system in the country. Keeping the above in view, the following scheme is notified by the Authority for inviting and processing proposals from consumer organisations, citizen groups, educational institutions and research institutions. These do not include research proposals for which a scheme has been developed separately.
Eligible organisations
Eligibility under the scheme will be for non-governmental organisations, schools and colleges, voluntary organisations, and government-supported institutions having at least three years experience in the food safety related field.
List of areas
The following is a list of areas in respect of which proposals are invited by the Authority:
i. Disseminate the information conveyed in food labels and enable consumers to obtain information from labels.
ii. Capacity building and skill enhancement of small food business operators, street vendors or any other registered/licensed food vendor.
iii. Innovative projects which involve the community in promoting food safety practices, raising hygiene levels etc.
iv. Encouraging testing of key food and food ingredients, testing of water quality and safety as well as presence of contaminants in commonly consumed food items.
v. Surveying and profiling levels of hygiene and safety in food businesses, households and food distribution units at panchayat, municipal and other levels.
vi. Disseminate food safety messages among children, housewives and others.
vii. Food Authority will also encourage proposals to develop communication material for disseminating the food safety messages of relevance to the consumers.
How to apply
An initial concept note of about three pages should be submitted to the Authority, outlining the proposed work, the contents and how the project will be executed along with deliverables. After approval of concept, the detailed proposal should be submitted. See www.fssai.gov.in for more information.
Processing of the proposal
The concept paper will be examined in the Authority by an expert committee involving internal and external experts and applicant will be informed within a period of 30 days whether the concept is approved or not in view of its relevance under the mandate of the Authority and usefulness for promoting food safety. After approval of the concept, the applicant would be expected to submit the full proposal within a period of 2 months. The complete proposal will be considered by the Authority and a view taken within one month of receipt of proposal. The Authority may at its discretion consult such other organisation or agencies or State Food Safety Commissioner(s) as considered necessary and time taken in such consultation will not be counted for the purpose of one month limit mentioned earlier. The State Food Safety Commissioner concerned will be kept informed of any project sanctioned in that State.
Time frame
The scheme will cover projects to be executed normally within a period of six months or less.
Financial assistance pattern
The limit of financial assistance would be Rs.2 lakhs subject to appraised/actual cost of the project, whichever is less in each case will be extended. FSSAI will not release any advance amount for execution of the project; the financial assistance will be disbursed only after completion of the project, submission of income-expenditure statement duly certified by CA, final report and feedback from the target group.

41 students hospitalized due to food poisoning

KUMBAKONAM: At least 41 school children were hospitalized at the government hospital in Kumbakonam on Tuesday after they complained of nausea and stomach ache.
The students from the Pandanallur High School are said to have consumed idli from a nearby shop run by one Krishnamoorthy (55). The moment the students consumed the food, they started vomiting and complained of stomach ache, which panicked the shopkeeper. Soon the residents called the 108 ambulance service and took them to the government hospital here.
According to police, the students used to consume their morning breakfast from the shop daily. However, on Tuesday, everyone started vomiting after consuming the food. Krishnamoorthy, who immediately checked the food, found a dead lizard, which was said to be the reason for the students throwing up.
Police said that Krishnamoorthy has been running the shop for a long time in his house. Unfortunately, on Tuesday, when the students visited the shop in the morning, the lizard in the idli batter went unnoticed and was consumed by them.
The school children were aged between eight and 14 years. The doctors said that 24 children were treated as outpatients and were sent home while the remaining have been hospitalised and are still undergoing treatment. However, they have assured that the children are out of danger.
The Thanjavur district collector N Subbaiyan and other health officials visited the children at the hospital. Moreover, he ordered to test the samples of food sold in the food joints and also insisted the food inspectors to monitor the outlets. Following the incident, food samples from the locality were taken by the health authorities and have been sent to the labs, the revenue authorities said.

தடைசெய்யப்பட்ட புகையிலை பொருட்கள் விற்றால் கடை உரிமம் ரத்து அதிகாரிகள் எச்சரிக்கை

செங்கல்பட்டு, நவ. 27:
மறைமலை நகர் நகராட்சி பகுதியில் தமிழக அரசால் தடை செய்யப்பட்ட பான்பராக், ஹன்ஸ், குட்கா பொருட்கள் பதுக்கி வைத்து விற்பதாக தமிழ்நாடு உணவு பாதுகாப்பு அதிகாரிகளுக்கு தகவல் கிடைத்தது.
அதன்பேரில் உணவு பாதுகாப்பு அலுவலர்கள் பாலசுப்பிரமணி, மணிகண்டன், வேலவன், தீபா, அமுதா ஆகியோர் மறைமலை நகராட்சிக்கு உட்பட்ட கம்பர் தெரு, பெரியார் தெரு, பாரதியார் தெரு, அண்ணா தெரு ஆகிய பகுதிகளில் உள்ள கடைகளில் நேற்று அதிரடி சோதனை நடத்தினர்.
அப்போது 20க்கும் மேற்பட்ட கடைகளில் விற்பனைக்காக பதுக்கி வைத்திருந்த 20 ஆயிரம் மதிப்புள்ள குட்கா பொருட்களை பறிமுதல் செய்தனர்.
தொடர்ந்து தடை செய்யப்பட்ட புகையிலை பொருட்களை விற்றால் கடையின் உரிமம் ரத்து செய்யப்படும் என அதிகாரிகள் எச்சரிக்கை விடுத்துள்ளனர்.
மறைமலை நகர் நகராட்சி பகுதியில் அதிகாரிகள் பான்பராக், குட்கா பொருட்களை கைப்பற்றினர்.

DINAMALAR NEWS

Food business licence process, registration goes online

PUNE: Food business operators (FBO) in Pune city will no longer have to visit the Food and Drugs Administration's office located in the congested bylanes of Guruwar Peth to register their business or apply for its licence.
The state Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has launched an online facility, wherein those in the business of manufacture, sale, distribution or transport of any kind of food material across the state can simply log on to the designated website, furnish details and submit the fee on another designated portal to register get a licence for their business or renew their existing licence. The online facility was launched in the state on November 22.
Food business operators with an annual turnover of above Rs 12 crore must possess a licence and those who earn less than Rs 12 crore a year must get a registration certificate, as per the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
"Earlier, food business operators in Pune had to come to our office in Guruwar Peth. Now, they can simply log on to www.foodlicensing.fssai.gov.in and sign up to avail of the online facility benefit to get their licence or to register," said Shashikant Kekare, joint commissioner (food), FDA, Pune division
Elaborating, Kekare said, "Once food business operators furnish their business related details after signing up on the website, they will get a username and password. Then the operator can fill up the form for seeking registration/licence and upload scanned copies of required documents on the website. After that they will have to log on to www.mahakosh.gov.in to submit the licence /registration fees either through internet banking or by simply using their debit or credit card number. After that, the operator needs to upload the online fee receipt on www.foodlicensing.fssai.gov.in and the work is done."
The Mahakosh website has been operational since April 1. "We have earned a revenue of Rs 1.58 lakh through the online submission of fees charged for seeking new registration/licence or towards their renewal. But, even though the facility for submitting the fee online has been there for the last eight months, all the documents and form filling exercise to seek licence/registration has been manual. From November 22, even that has gone online. Now, there is no need for operators to come to the FDA office for their work," said Dilip Sangat, assistant commissioner (food), FDA, Pune.
As per Section 31 (1) and Section 32 (2) of Food Safety and Standards Act 2006, it is mandatory for food business operators to obtain either a licence or a registration from the FDA. Operating food businesses without the mandatory licence or registration is punishable under section 63 of the act.
"Food business operators who have to renew their licence or registration by November 31 should file an application before it, failing which they will have to bear a fine of Rs 100 per day," said Sangat.
Since the enforcement of the new Food Safety and Standards Act in August 2011, FDA officials have allotted licences to 29,880 food business operators and registered 91,121 food business operators in Pune division, which includes Pune, Satara, Kolhapur, Solapur and Sangli.
Every business establishment that offers food services, including hotels, restaurants, fast food joints, hawkers, pan shops, tea stalls, vegetable and fruit vendors, meat shops, ration and grocery shops are inspected by the food safety officials (FSO) for licence or registration.
To avail online license/registration facility
* Food business operators (FBO) should have a valid personal email ID and a mobile number, which is active
* The name of the FBO should be spelt correctly in the application as it appears in the licence
* On successful submission of application, the system will generate a unique reference Id for the application for further processes like filing fees online
District Licence Registration
* Pune 15,291 24,449
* Satara 3,096 15,756
* Kolhapur 4,056 20,041
* Solapur 3,690 14,943
* Sangli 3,747 16,931
(Source: Food and Drugs Administration, Pune)

Are you safe from adulterated milk?

As children, we are often told that having milk will make us stronger. And so many of us however unwillingly glugged a glass sweetened by a malt and chocolate mix. But does that advice really hold today. With rising concerns surrounding food safety, we need to relook at and be cautious about something which we consume every day. A survey revealed that more than 70 per cent of the milk consumed in India is adulterated. The kind of substances that go into the glass of milk consumed by a regular Indians are shocking to know. To enhance the volumes of milk, it is a common practice to add substances like glucose, urea and skim milk powder (SMP) to milk. You can imagine the ill effects it might have on you and your family while consuming what you think of as a healthy drink.

In spite of this, the number of people who consume loose milk is alarming. Several consumers in urban areas prefer to buy loose milk from milk vendors due to the strong perception that loose milk is fresh. What they are unaware of is the fact that loose milk is exposed to the maximum amount of contamination as it is manually handled and high standards of quality are often not met.
From water to food substances to chemicals, loose milk runs the risk of high contamination. Considering the rate at which adulteration rackets are being busted in most major cities, including ours, it is vital that we find a regular source of unadulterated milk.
Thus it is vital to protect oneself from useless worries and use a safe source of nutrition. Some of the ways of preventing this is to boil the milk to remove the bacteria but by doing so we also kill good bacteria present in the milk and reduce its nutritional value. The best option is opt for milk processed with Ultra High Temperature (UHT) technology as it is the safest and most reliable option. It clearly surpasses all other milk types in the kind of advantages it offers. In UHT technology, milk is heated at a very high temperature (135-150 degrees C) in a closed system for a few seconds, then force cooled to room temperature. This process removes all micro-organisms from milk. Flash-heating-and-cooling that is adopted in the process also substantially reduces the nutrient loss associated with conventional sterilisation.
As a result, UHT milk retains more nutritional value and exhibits more natural texture, colour and taste. The aseptic packaging provides unparalleled protection ensuring food that is pure, fresh and hygienically packaged and very difficult to tamper with.

'Rats, rusty tools infest filthy Kurla bakery'

MUMBAI: City's licensing authorities have found critical lapses in hygiene conditions at Al-Fala bakery that had supplied cakes to a Saki Naka school on Monday where 450 students fell ill after consuming them. Rodents ran amok in the bakery, situated in a dingy lane near Kurla station, which lacked proper ventilation, storing or preserving facilities.
Andheri court remanded the four accused in the case in five days' police custody.
Meanwhile, hospitals witnessed around 20 fresh admissions of Anjuman Noorul Urdu High School students after they complained of nagging abdomen pain and weakness. As of Tuesday, around 60 children continued to be hospitalized.
Inspections carried out both by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the BMC showed deficiencies in cleaning of the bakery premises and equipment. The cake mixing machine was rusted and in poor condition. No measures were taken to stop insects from crawling into food packets. Rodents had a free run on shelves where food items are placed before packaging. Ingredients were stored in unhygienic conditions.
When TOI visited the premises on Tuesday, workers of the bakery, some obviously below the minimum employable age, said only utensils used for mixing were washed daily. "It is not necessary to clean equipment daily. As far as the rats are concerned, they do not enter the bakery when the oven is being used," said one. The bakery has been around for over two years.
Another worker said they were made to eat the same cakes in the presence of the police. "We ate more than one but none of us had any health issues. The cakes supplied to school were prepared just the previous evening." The bakery owner could not be reached for comment.
The FDA found the bakery was running without the mandatory licence under the Food Safety Standards Act, 2011. "Cleanliness and hygiene were the major issues. Our prosecution department will look into the case as the owner has violated rules," said Suresh Annapure, joint commissioner, food. An offence of this nature could attract a penalty of up to Rs 5 lakh or a six months' jail term.
The BMC will also prosecute the bakery for operating without a health department's licence. Health officials have issued a notice, and also sent a report to the legal department to initiate prosecution. Civic education committee members have demanded action against the supervisor and beat officer for not checking the quality of food.
Normally, in food poisoning cases, accused are granted bail. "Looking at the number of students, the court remanded them to police custody," said Saki Naka police senior inspector Prasanna More. "Prima facie, it seems the cake was of inferior quality or not properly cooked."

Sans abattoir, Kozhikode fails to meet hygiene norms

Customers are at the mercy of the 50-odd retail meat shops in the city where there is no monitoring of the quality of meat or the methods used to slaughter the animals.

Be compassionate to animals, GO tells local bodies

A new government order (GO) has directed local bodies across the State to observe hygiene and compassion at slaughterhouses.

The order, issued by the Animal Husbandry Department on November 19, directed local bodies to strictly follow Section 38 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.

The section mandated that slaughter could be done only on the premises of abattoirs and every such facility should provide a separate space for stunning of animals prior to slaughter, bleeding, and dressing of the carcass.

The department instructed local bodies to ensure that ‘repeated hammering’ to stun the animal before slaughter be discontinued immediately. It threatened penal action against violators. The GO wanted abattoirs to switch to the ‘captive bolt pistol method’ to stun animals in abattoirs in the next 6 months.

But there seemed to be no way in which any part of this order could be implemented in Kozhikode city. To start with, the entire city does not even have an abattoir.

Kothi abattoir

It was now a decade since the Kothi abattoir, started in the 1940s, unceremoniously shut shop following protests against the indiscriminate disposal of animal waste in the area.

So, for years, consumers here had been at the mercy of the 50-odd retail meat shops in city limits for red meat. Most shopkeepers used the early morning hours for slaughter, using the limited space between the footpath and their shop fronts. There was no monitoring of quality of meat or the methods they used to slaughter the animals.

Buyers were usually greeted with parts of animals and blood and gore lying strewn inside the shops or bundled in sacks.

The cattle for slaughter were brought from Koduvally, Coimbatore, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. “There is not a single licensed slaughterhouse within Corporation limits. We have no means of checking the quality of meat or the slaughter methods. We had repeatedly taken up this issue with the Corporation, which does not even have a veterinary surgeon. The post has been lying vacant for years,” T. John Kattakayam, Chief Veterinary Officer, said.

Multi-pronged reforms

A GO on November 16, 2013 called for multi-pronged reforms. It pointed to how ‘most of the slaughtering activities in Kerala is going on without following the statutory provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Rules of 2001, Bureau of Indian Standards guidelines, pollution control legislations, meat production industry norms, etc.’

This GO advocated ‘engagement with butchers’ for capacity building and improvement of their facilities as per standards. It prescribed enhancing the abilities of animal husbandry, LSG bodies, Food Safety Commissioner, and the Sales Tax Department for better quality checks.

Though the November 16 GO directed the establishment of new, modern abattoirs, the Corporation here was doubtful of how soon they could come up with one.

“We have forwarded a proposal for a slaughterhouse under the PPP model to the State government. We have only recently completed acquisition of land near the old Kothi slaughterhouse. The project was estimated at Rs. 40 lakh at the outset,” Deputy Mayor P.T. Abdul Latheef said.

“Maintaining hygiene standards in a slaughterhouse is not easy. First of all, it requires proper infrastructure and waste disposal mechanism and facilities for ante-mortem and post-mortem checks. It will be an expensive affair to ensure hygiene and meat standards,” Dr. Kattakayam said. But Meat Products of India Ltd (MPI), a public sector undertaking licensed to sell and market meat products, presents a flip side. They said their sales performance in Malabar was abysmally low despite strict compliance to hygiene and slaughter norms.

For ordinary customers in the Malabar area, the price of red meat probably weighed more than hygiene concerns, MPI sources said.

Kanakamma B., Marketing Supervisor, MPI, said the undertaking sold hardly 300 kg of red meat every 14 days in Kozhikode. This was when cities such as Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam averaged 1 to 1.5 tonnes in the same time period.

“Our red meat is prepared and sold hygienically. But it costs Rs.230 a kg. Unlicensed meat stalls sell at Rs.140 per kg. Customers find us too expensive, so they do not buy our products,” she said.

Clarity sought on food safety

Health ministry blocked huge consignments of cheese and chocolates from Europe
The European Union (EU) has raised concern on the implementation of packaging norms under the Food Safety and Standards Act, as this will hit imports of food products from that region.
Joao Cravinho, EU’s ambassador to India, has written to the Centre, seeking clarity on the rules. This follows the health ministry blocking huge consignments of cheese and chocolates from Europe, as these didn’t adhere to the packaging and labelling norms. “The food safety concerns are legitimate. We have no issues about that. We need to find a manner in which these issues can be addressed, without prejudicing trade. Otherwise, these could constitute non-tariff barriers,” Cravinho said on Tuesday.
Last month, the Food Safety and Standard Authority under the health ministry had blocked consignments of about 200 tonnes of imported cheese, chocolates and other food items. This had led to a controversy.
Under the new norms, pasting stickers to categorise products as vegetarian or non-vegetarian aren’t enough; the product cover should be printed with the details.
Cravinho said there was no request from the Indian government to reconsider its decision to end the preferential tariff system for imports from India. A new generalised system of preferences is being introduced, under which exports of certain products from India, including textiles, chemicals, and leather goods, will attract a higher tariff. “I have not received any request from the government and am not aware of any such demand. I met the commerce secretary on Monday and this issue was not discussed,” Cravinho said.
India and the EU are negotiating a free trade agreement since June 2007. Both sides have missed several deadlines to conclude the talks, owing to differences on the extent to which the markets will be opened up. While India is demanding data-secure status, the EU demands easing of foreign direct investment in the insurance sector.
Cravinho said the issue of data-secure status wasn’t linked to the free trade agreement. “It cannot be linked. Data protection is a fundamental right in Europe and cannot be negotiated,” he said, adding Europe was keen to work with India on the matter and there was a plan to set up technical groups to study the issue.