Bake says ‘no’ to animal fat use

Kochi, Dec. 30: 

The Bakers Association (Bake) has said it is totally against the use of animal fat in food items made and sold at bakeries. 

It said the allegation in certain quarters that many bakeries use animal fat was unfounded and wanted the food safety authorities to investigate the allegation. 

The association offered its full support to the authorities in raiding bakeries to find the use of animal fat. It wanted that any bakery that was found using animal fat should be immediately closed down.

Debate over ban on plastic bottles for medicines

MUMBAI: Plastic manufacturers are up in arms against the union health ministry's diktat of banning the use of plastic / PET containers in liquid oral formulations for primary packaging of formulations for paediatric, geriatrics, women in reproductive age group and pregnant women. The ministry's Drug Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) recommended that it should be phased out and eventually banned.

The pharmaceutical industry is likely to be given an adequate time of six months for the switch over. The decision came in the wake of concerns raised by Him Jagriti, Uttaranchal Welfare Society, Dehradun the use of plastic as primary packaging material in pharmaceutical liquid orals, suspensions and dry syrups can cause severe adverse effects on human health due to the presence of endocrine disruptors.

Their representation to the union health ministry stated, "Leaching takes place under varying storage-temperature conditions and the age of the packaging (leaching becomes faster in hot/warm conditions, and also as the packaging becomes old). The leached elements can cause several diseases including cancer and physical infirmities. Many chemical additives that give plastic products desirable performance properties have grave negative environmental and human health effects." The representation of HIM Jagriti was deliberated by DTAB in May this. They had constituted an expert committee under the chairmanship of Dr YK Gupta, prof & HOD, department of Pharmacology, AIIMS.

The committee had concluded that the information provided in the representation of HIM JAGRITI and according to the available literature, is not sufficient enough to establish a definite correlation of causality of plastic container for pharmaceutical products and adverse health effects. The committee observed that scientific evidence needs to be generated in a time bound manner to find out the extent of leachbility, type of toxicants leached and health hazard due to exposure of the leached toxicant.

The PET Container Manufacturers Associations also represented to the Director General Health Services stating that PET packaging with its inherent strength such as product safety, eco-friendliness and recyclability will continue to be used in food, beverage and pharmaceuticals packaging. The PET is universally safe and environment friendly packaging material. The literature attached to the representation, however, did not address the issues raised by HIM Jagriti.

The pharma industry was earlier using glass bottles only as primary packaging material for pharmaceuticals. "The switch over to packing in plastic / PET bottles by the industry is not based on any scientific studies to show that packing of drug formulations in plastic/PET bottles does not have any harmful effect on the drug formulations and there are no releases of endocrine disruptors due to leaching," stated the committee.

Railways plan to get ISO 22000 for better service

Ahmedabad (ADI): In a desperate bid to improve quality of its various services to high-profile passengers of its premium trains, the Indian Railways, which runs 12,000 trains, is now bent on achieving an ISO 22000 certificate. 

The railway board has decided to arm itself with the latest food safety management system after receiving several complaints about unhygienic food from travellers in Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains. 

A gap analysis—comparison of actual performance with potential—of the Ahmedabad-Delhi Rajdhani Express was completed this week to check whether the services during the 13-hour journey in this superfast train met the standards of ISO 22000 granted by the Geneva-based International Organisation for Standards for food, cleanliness and customer service quality. 

Tests for other Rajdhanis to check whether they follow the norms adhered to by leading hotels and restaurants in India and abroad will also be conducted soon as part of railways’ efforts to effectively redress complaints of poor quality service on its first-rate flying trains. 

An Ahmedabad division senior railway official told South Asia Mail that the process was on for procuring testing kits that would instantly reveal the quality of food served on trains. 

The quality of on-train service has been a major concern for the railways which was also planning to do away with pantry system but with ISO 22000, it will be easy to measure performance against a universally recognised benchmark. 

ISO 22000 is a global food safety management system that can be applied to any organization in the food chain, farm to fork. Becoming certified to the ISO 22000 lets a company show its customers that they have a food safety management system in place, thus providing customer confidence in the product. 

Last month, guidelines were issued to all railway zones to provide special meals on demand to diabetic and heart patients among passengers travelling on Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains. 

Sugar-free meals are now provided to those suffering from diabetes but they would have to indicate their preference in advance. 

Diabetics hitherto had to carry their own food from home for the long journey or had to avoid most of the meals served to them resulting in wastage of food, adding that now they could enjoy their train travel as no extra charges would be collected from them.

Let the system be free of paranoia, victimization

The government should create right incentives in the market for its smooth functioning both directly as well as through its regulatory agencies. But what we have seen in the recent Kanwal adulteration issue is diametrically opposite to that.

First, when the allegation of adulteration on this company was made, instead of verifying the allegation SMC out rightly started blaming and maligning the reputation of the company’ products. It appears that the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 and rules/regulation 2011 which has laid down detailed and well defined methods for lifting/analysis of food samples, were not taken care of.

Rather than following the procedure, various provisions of the Act  like section 47(1)(a) and rule 2.4.1(3) & (4) which bounds a Food Safety Officer to serve the notice to the food business operator and manufacturer for lifting of food sample; second, under section 47(1) (b) and rule 2.4.1(10) (i) & (ii) the food safety officer is required to lift four parts of sample, weighing 500gms each having same batch number; and, third, under section 47(c) (iii) and rules 2.4.1 (10) (iii) the food safety officer is required to send the fourth part of the sample to the accredited laboratory on the request of Food Business Operator, were not followed.

The allegations were made by SMC based on the laboratory tests conducted at Kolkata. The proper course of action should have been to start an inquiry into the matter and wait for the results of referral laboratory designated by the FSSAI vide its order issued on 31st of July 2013. In case the accusations stood correct strict action should have been taken against the defaulters.

However instead of doing that government went on an overdrive to blame. This was quickly upped up by the “experts” on social media without verifying the detail. The net result has been creation of paranoia about the whole issue. This unresponsive and unreasonable way of dealing with this ‘local issue’ should be bemoaned and strongly condemned.

SMC, which has miserably failed in delivering the basic services, has unnecessarily started framing, defaming and discouraging local entrepreneurs.  A corporation which has wretchedly failed to scientifically deal with the chaos of dogs and dust, dirt and Dal has started unnecessarily hammering our future economy sources. Destroying the potential of our ‘radical and revolutionary entrepreneurs’ at the behest of some kleptocrats unfortunately can be a harbinger of an economic doom and a perilous future. Creating an atmosphere of unfair rules, inimical to innovations and creativity will certainly take us back to stone ages.

  Certain individuals who have dared to unleash a new dawn of inventions and innovations in a conflict ravaged state deserve every kind of support. The conditions in which they operate, the environment in which they do business is somewhat we all should be appreciative.  SMC, rather than slandering any successful local innovative company which otherwise has received great compliments for quality, innovativeness and delivery should also learn to appreciate other such radical firms. We should not undermine the fact that Kanwal Spices in a short span of thirty five years is competing globally with big giants.

A firm which started as a local Kashmir venture now represents Kashmir innovations successfully at a global platform. This factory of ‘traditiovations’ is continuously and successfully blending the culture and tradition of Kashmir with science and technology. What started as a small mill with modest financial and human resources on the banks of river Jhelum has turned out as a successful innovative venture (grassroots to global) with more than 100 crores of annual turnover.

 If one compares such ventures with our state firms, not only do we observe the depressing results and figures but also the pathetic condition of workers and firms too. The need of the hour is thus to stop creating paranoia and not allow mobocracy to rule the roost. It is a serious matter which should be handled with great degree of responsibility.

Now the matter is in the people’s court, we as usual will wait for the best judgment which will be in the larger interests of the people of the state and also for the local innovators.

Centre still a divided house over field trials for GM crops

Activists of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha destroy genetically modified paddy crops on a field owned by Dupont during a protest at Hadonahalli in Bangalore district in this November, 2010

The government’s attempts to get the Environment Ministry to support field trials have failed

The government’s attempts to persuade the Environment Ministry to accept the Agriculture, and Science and Technology Ministries’ views in favour of immediately going ahead with field trials of genetically modified (GM) food crops have failed so far.

The government was to respond to reports filed by the Technical Expert Committee and one of its dissenting members before the Supreme Court in an ongoing case and it was decided by the Prime Minister’s Office that a “harmonised” common stance would be presented to the courts.

But the attempt at the level of the Cabinet Secretary to forge such a common stance in favour of permitting field trials of GM food crops, which is being advocated by the Agriculture and Science ministries, along with the biotech industry, faced the reality of diametrically opposite views prevailing in the government.

The former Environment Minister, Jayanthi Natarajan, had put her opposition to GM food crop trials on record.

The Hindu accessed the draft affidavit prepared by the committee of secretaries led by the Cabinet Secretary in favour of immediate opening of field trials of GM food crops. In meetings held over months, the committee of secretaries, including secretaries from the Agriculture Ministry, Department of Biotechnology and others, tried to push through this version. But the Environment secretary stood his ground upon instructions of the then Environment Minister.

The Environment secretary recommended that safeguards such as public hearings and consent of State governments be put in place before going ahead with the trials. He also advised site specific safeguards and risk assessment guidelines as part of the reforms.

The Minister on her part noted that she had told the Prime Minister of her opposition to the trials and preferred to file a separate affidavit on behalf of her Ministry rather than go with the widely different views of the Ministry of Agriculture and others which are ‘promoting’ ministries.

If the government was to now forge a common stance overruling her opposition it should be done at the level of the Prime Minister or the Union Cabinet and not be dictated by a committee of secretaries, Ms. Natarajan said, noting that if a common affidavit was what the government wanted it had to take in to account the Parliamentary Standing Committee’s opposition to such trials as well as the opposition from many State governments. The Environment secretary conveyed the decision but the committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary continued to push for a “common” affidavit.

In an attempt to forge a ‘common ground’, the committee did try to tone down its harsh attack against the Technical Expert Committee of the Supreme Court, which had advocated a moratorium on field trials till a new regulatory regime is put in place. But even while agreeing to some of the regulatory reforms that the TEC recommended, the committee, in its revised position, continued to demand an immediate clearance for field trials without awaiting either the passing of the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority Bill, which is now pending in the Parliament, or other regulatory reforms. It instead leaned almost entirely in favour of the dissenting report of R.S. Paroda, former director general of Indian Council of Agriculture Research, who was put on the TEC after the government complained of lack of balance in the panel. Mr. Paroda in his dissenting report favoured going-ahead with field trials and not awaiting regulatory reforms.

In the same case before Supreme Court, the Agriculture Ministry had earlier presented its views separately and the Environment Ministry stayed out of the litigation owing to its radically different views.

The current Environment Minister M. Veerappa Moily is yet to take a view on the matter but would have to now do a complete turn around on his Ministry and predecessor’s decisions if he wishes to go ahead with the field trials.

Responding to a query on the conflict within the government, Kavitha Kuruganti, member of the Coalition for a GM-Free India, said: “The issue is related to bio-safety and other risks; that is what the case is about. The mandate and responsibility for protecting and upholding bio-safety is with the MoEF. They should be responding in the Court. Ministry of Agriculture represents conflict of interest; it is a promotional body, not regulatory. There is no single rational reason why India should walk into field trials without addressing some basic issues raised by the majority TEC report of independent scientists.”

But, Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises — Agriculture Group (ABLE-AG) argued it did not make sense to hold back field trials at the moment even as the Bill is before Parliament. States and the Central government had adequate systems for supervision and monitoring in place, it said. “There should be only one view of the government on the matter. There are no worries about confined field trials. Regulatory process should also evolve with introduction of new technologies. No question of environment safety is involved in the field trials right now,” ABLE-AG executive director N. Seetharama said.