DINAMANI NEWS

Unhygienic meat seized from 37 shops in crackdown

Chennai: Inspections conducted by corporation officials on Sunday found that several butchers in the city were selling unhygienic meat. 

A team of corporation officials inspected 37 meat shops in areas like Villivakkam, Ayanavaram, Thirumangalam and Anna Nagar and seized 270kg of unhygienic meat. The confiscated meat was later destroyed at the Velangadu burial ground. 

A senior health department official said action would be taken against butchers selling unhygienic meat. “Meat being sold for consumption should be sourced from one of the three corporation slaughterhouses in Perambur, Saidapet or Villivakkam, where the animal is examined and approved for consumption,” the officer said. 

“After slaughtering, the animals are stamped with a seal. Meat from roadside shops without the corporation seal is unfit for consumption and may cause health problems,” the official said.

Detergent found in packaged milk It’s Sub-Standard, Unsafe And Misbranded: Central Food Laboratory

SriNagar, Dec 17: After the expose of spurious drug scam in Kashmir, it has now come to fore that a leading brand of packaged milk available in Kashmir market contains detergent.

An official report accessed by Greater Kashmir reveals that Central Food Laboratory Kolkata has confirmed the presence of detergent in a sample of milk lifted from Kashmir. The sample was tested in the laboratory on November 25 this year.

The laboratory report states that the sample has also failed to conform to various other standards stipulated under laws and regulations.

“The sample does not conform to the standards as laid down under Regulation no. 2.1.1(1) of Food Safety and Standards (Food Products and Food Additive) Regulations, 2011, since the sample shows milk fat and B.R. at 40 C (Extracted fat) lower than the prescribed limit,” the report states.

“It also contravenes regulation no. 2.2.2(10) and 2.2.2.4 (iii) of Food Safety and Standards (Packing and Labeling) Regulations, 2011, for not mentioning best-before date and symbol of veg. food on the label,” it adds.

The report terms the sample as “sub-standard, unsafe and misbranded.”

In 2012, a survey by Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) revealed that 80 per cent of milk sold in Jammu and Kashmir contains adulterants.

Out of 18 samples picked up from different parts of the State by the FSSAI, 15 were found contaminated with glucose and skimmed milk powder.

The samples were tested as part of a survey to ascertain the quality of milk and identify different type of adulterations in the liquid milk throughout India.

Only yesterday, Fennel (Saunf) powder manufactured by a leading local company was found containing coloring agents Carmoisine and Tartrazine that are unsafe for human health.

Earlier this year, several medicines supplied to government hospitals were found of sub-standard quality.

Kanwal goes spicer as SMC health officer alleges harassment

Srinagar, Dec 17: Health Officer Srinagar Municipal Corporation Dr Shafqat Khan Tuesday alleged that he was threatened by the Kanwal Group for releasing the ‘Quality Test Report’ whereby it was found that company using harmful colouring agents in its spices, which can cause cancer.

“Instead of sending a legal notice, they (Kanwal) in the afternoon send Advocate Molvi Aijaz on behalf of Kanwal Group to my office and threaten me of dire consequences for releasing the report. He used unparliamentarily language against me,” Khan alleged.

Khan said that without any orders from the court, the advocate started asking him information about the procedure of conducting the tests.

Khan said that he has already filed the complaint against the Advocate at Shahid Gunj Police Station.

Khan said that a sample of Saunf powder manufactured by M/S Kanwal Agro Food Industries Anantnag sold to the public in Valley contained ‘coloring agents’ that can prove deadly for the consumers.

“A sample of Saunf powder manufactured by M/S Kanwal Agro Food Industries Anantnag bearing lot No. KA/SP/E, with packaging date June 04, 2013 has been declared unsafe and hazardous by the central Food laboratory Kolkata,” Dr Khan had said in a statement.

Khan said that the spice contains coloring agents like Carmoisine and Tartrazine which can cause serious health hazards on consumption.

However, the company Tuesday termed the claims made by the health officer ‘as hollow’ and said: we have initiated legal action against Dr Khan for maligning the image and credibility of the company.

The company said the fennel sample was sent to the office of the Public Analyst Kashmir who cleared the samples. “The concerned Health Officer, as per his statement, was dissatisfied with the report and thereof claims to have sent the counter samples fennel to the Central Testing Laboratory Kolkatta to counter

verify the sample for chemical characteristics and the report furnished by the laboratory claims that it found Carmoisine and Tartrazine were found in the tested samples,” Kanwal Agro said in a statement issued today.

“We have initiated legal action against the concerned Health Officer as no SOP’s have been followed in our case and the rules and regulation laid down in the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 were not followed,” the statement issued by the leading spice manufacturer which supplies spices to nearly 30 countries across the globe read.

The company has directed all distributors, retailers and consumers to stop the sale or distribution of fennel and return the product so that it could be destroyed. “We reassure the general public that neither Carmoisine nor Tartrazine are mixed in our fennel nor can it be mixed since that would impart red or yellow colour to the product,” the statement reads.

The company has formed a team which is lifting the adultered spice from the market. However, Dr Shafqat Khan said that he stand by his report and is ready for any legal action.

“I am ready for any legal action if proved wrong. I stand by my report and won’t change it under any threat or pressure,” Khan said.

Meanwhile Station Head Officer Shahid Gunj Police Station, Sajad Sarwar said that they have received the complaint and were investigating the case.

“We have received the complaint and have started the investigation,” Sarwar told Rising Kashmir.

SMC sticks to report: 'We have ‘tentacles in system’: Kanwal's lawyer

Kanwal group was founded by Mohammad Amin whose son, Farooq Amin (above) is the present CEO of the company. 

SRINAGAR — A Kashmiri lawyer who claimed to represent Kanwal Agro Food Industries barged into the office of Srinagar Municipal Corporation Tuesday and threatened the officers with dire consequences for making public a report which had revealed that the a spice manufactured by Kanwal group contained carcinogenic substances.

A senior SMC official wishing anonymity said the lawyer, Molvi Aijaz, who was appointed as amicus curie in the infamous Kashmir Sex Scandal, barged into the SMC office and harassed the officers who had sanctioned an investigation into the saunf powder manufactured by Kanwal group. 

“He threatened that Kanwal group had tentacles everywhere in the system and that SMC had committed a big mistake by making the report public,” he said. 

A forensic test by Kolkata’s Central Food Laboratory Monday revealed that the powder contained Carmoisine and Tartrazine which can cause serious health hazards including cancer. 

However, Kanwal group Tuesday issued a statement that the company has initiated legal action against an SMC health officer for ‘maligning the image and credibility of the company’. 

“The sample was sent to the office of the Public Analyst Kashmir Province who cleared the samples as unadulterated and fit for consumption. The concerned health officer was dissatisfied with the report. We have initiated legal action against the concerned Health Officer as no SOP's have been followed in our case and the rules and regulation laid down in the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 were not followed,” the company statement reads. 

However, a senior SMC official told Authint Mail that if the saunf powder was unadultered, as claimed by Kanwal, why was it lifted back from the market. 

“If the saunf is indeed free of carcinogens, what was the need of lifting the product back from market? They are even claiming to have destroyed the spice. If the product is clean, what is the need of destroying it and incurring losses” he said. 

Despite repeated attempts, officials of Kanwal group could not be reached for their comment.

No harmful chemicals in our spices: Kanwal Agro

SRINAGAR: Kanwal Agro Food Industries has denied claims of Srinagar Municipal Corporation that its Sounf (fennel) seed powder was injurious to health.

"The company feels that the procedures adopted by the Health Officer of Srinagar Municipal Corporation Dr Shafkat for testing of the said spice is aimed at maligning the image of the company as he has not adhered to the set rules for lifting of the samples and their testing under the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 and rules/regulation 2011" Director Kanwal Agro Food Industries said in a statement.

The statement said that legal action has been initiated against the official "for not following standard operating procedure(SOP) in testing the samples.”

"We reassure the general public that neither Carmoisine nor Tartrazine are mixed in our Sounf powder nor can it be mixed since that would impart red or yellow colour to the product," the statement said.