FDA gets permanent home at Bambolim

PANAJI: After shunting its offices through four different premises in the 40-odd years of its existence, Goa's directorate of food and drug administration (FDA) has finally found its permanent home in its sprawling campus at Bambolim.

Showing off the two-storey laterite stone structure inaugurated on Tuesday, FDA director Salim Veljee said that the design was highly public-friendly, with all public interface restricted to the single large hall in the entrance. "This will be FDA's single facility across Goa, and will be adequate in all aspects, for a minimum of 20 years. We are modernizing all our operations, and becoming completely computer-savvy," said Veljee.

The new office is a far cry from the FDA's ramshackle premises in Altinho, and comes with modern storage facilities for drugs and food items. "Earlier, we faced plenty of problems due to lack of space. Seized food items were often attacked by rats - a disaster as we are supposed to produce them in court in the same condition. We did not have proper climate-controlled storage for drug samples. All these problems have now been solved," he pointed out. The facility has separate storage areas for food items and medicines and a refrigerated unit for perishable goods - all under constant CCTV surveillance to prevent tampering. A library, a 'role-model' kitchen and canteen and large, airy offices complete the picture.

"Now that we have a state of the art conference room, we are planning to have regular training sessions and educational workshops for all food vendors and drug providers. With constant education and monitoring, we hope to set high standards of cleanliness and quality for our street food vendors," he added. The FDA is in the process of recruiting eight new food safety officers and four new drug regulators.

The adjacent laboratory building, which has been located at Bambolim since 2007, will also be upgraded shortly. "We have now started collecting samples of fruits and vegetables, which are sent to a lab in Mysore for pesticide traces and wax coating. Our laboratory will shortly install the sophisticated equipment necessary to do these tests," Veljee said, adding that they already comply with the 14-day turnaround time for every test report.

The FDA is shifting to its new premises over the weekend, and will not function on Friday.

Water unsafe at stns, but rly staff get bubble-tops

Chennai: The bubble-top cans for staff at suburban stations are a dead giveaway. While passengers fill their bottles at taps under the sign ‘Drinking Water’, what they get is far from potable, a study by a team of medical students has shown. 

The purified, packaged water is for railway officials — never mind if the passengers have to make do with water containing bacteria that can cause many diseases. 

The students collected samples from ‘drinking water’ taps at stations on the Beach-Tambaram line. Tests showed that water at 10 suburban stations had high bacterial content and was “unfit for consumption.” 

“When we were collecting the samples, we saw vendors collecting the water to cook. Homeless people drink straight from the taps,” said Sriviji S, a member of the team. 

All samples tested positive for bacteria, but six had a high percentage of Escherichia coli (E. coli), which causes urinary tract infection, gastroenteritis, peritonitis and septicemia. The presence of E. coli indicates faecal contamination. 

“Drinking water should ideally have no E. coli, but a person may consume water contaminated with up to 10mpn (most probable number) per 100ml of water without falling ill. But even those levels are dangerous over time,” said microbiologist Dr S Pushkala. The students found that samples from the Mambalam suburban station had an E. coli content of 1,800mpn per 100ml, the Tirusulam station, 1,600mpn, and Meenambakkam, 920mpn. “The water is clearly contaminated,” Pushkala said, adding that the railways officials should probe the source of the contamination and fix it. 

The medicos also found that the water had high pH (acidity) and turbidity levels. Around 5 lakh people use the Beach-Tambaram line and each station has three to four drinking water taps. 

Railway officials admitted that they rarely test the water at suburban and other stations. “The water that is supplied to these taps is either from borewells or overhead tanks. We sometimes engage tankers. So the source of the contamination is not clear,” a railway official said. “But we need to find the source and ensure that the water in the taps is safe to drink.” 

He said some stations have reverse osmosis units but they are not functional. 

The medical department is responsible for quality checks of drinking water at railway stations. Former director of public health S Elango, who took part in the study, said drinking water at the stations should be checked on a regular basis. 

TROUBLED WATERS 

Stations surveyed: Egmore, Nungambakkam, Saidapet, Kodambakkam, Mambalam, Guindy, St Thomas Mount, Palavanthangal, Meenambakkam, Tirusulam 

Study showed E. coli, a bacteria found in intestines, in the water. Its presence indicates faecal contamination 

Water at Mambalam station, with an E. coli content of 1,800mpn per 100 ml, was the most contaminated 

Study also found that the 

water had high pH (acidity) and turbidity levels

Rs 1.10 lakh imposed fine on 15 shopkeepers under Food Safety Act-2006 in Anantnag

ANANTNAG, FEBRUARY 19:- The Additional Deputy Commissioner Anantnag, who is also the Adjudicating Officer under Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 today imposed a fine of Rs.1.10 lakh on 15 accused shopkeepers who were found selling Mis-Branded and Sub-Standard food items. Complaints were filed by food safety officers of the District in the court of ADC Anantnag against the defaulters.

KIT WILL DETERMINE CAUSES OF FOOD POISONING

New Delhi, 20 February

To help determine the causes of outbreaks of food poisoning and infections effectively, the Union Health Ministery today launched an indigenously developed kit for detection of food-borne pathogens.

The technology has been developed by the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad.

“The kit for detection of food borne pathogens will be very useful to determine the causes of outbreaks of food poisoning and food borne common infections caused by eating of contaminated eggs, poultry, meat, dairy products as well as vegetables, contaminated with water borne infections,” Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said while launching the kit.

The Minister highlighted that this user friendly and rapid detection system will be of immense use not only to the Food Safety Authority of India but also to the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, which reports on food poisoning outbreaks and to diagnostic laboratories in Government as well as to private sector.

Studies show that about 13 per cent of deaths, among children of less than five years of age, are due to diarrhoea, which is caused essentially due to consumption of contaminated food and water, Azad said. The kits developed by NIN, in collaboration with Bioserve Biotechnologies, are indigenous, less time consuming and cost 1/3rd of the imported kits costs.

Use of the kits by the food industry will not only help domestic consumers in having safe food but also help reducing export rejections on account of microbiological contamination.

The second kit, Azad said, will help in estimating the quantity of ferritin and help in diagnosing iron deficiency anaemia individually as well as for mass level screening.

“This test will be useful to decide supplementation of iron according to the need and also to avoid iron dosing in conditions where iron accumulates in the body; for instance due to repeated blood transfusions in cases of Thalassemia, Haemophilia and others,” Azad said.

The present estimates of anaemia due to iron deficiency in different groups vary widely from 5 per cent to 50 per cent. 

Besides this variation, there are large numbers of adolescent boys and girls who are anaemic. As per National Family Health Survey, 56 per cent of girls and 30 per cent of boys in the age group of 10-19 years are anaemic, the Minister said. In India, anaemia control strategies are based on haemoglobin levels. However, estimation of serum ferritin has been found to be the specific diagnostic tool for early detection of iron deficiency. Therefore, a ferritin test helps to diagnose with certainty and the extent of iron deficiency, avoiding unnecessary iron supplementation. It is based on ELISA principle and is specific, very accurate, cost effective and convenient method comparable to other commercially available kits, Azad said. The third kit is for diagnosing Vitamin-A deficiency. The dried blood spot collection system for Plasma Vitamin-A estimation is a simple system that allows the blood to be collected on a special type of filter paper which can be stored for 7 days at room temperature and for several days at refrigerated temperature.

“It will be valuable for mass screening for deciding on Vitamin-A supplementation as and when required. This system will reduce the inconvenience to children, cost of blood collection, storage and transportation associated with conventional vein puncture method of blood collection,” said Azad.

A national prophylaxis programme to prevent and control night blindness due to Vitamin A deficiency was first started in 1970, under which children aged between 1 to 5 years are administered vitamin A at six monthly intervals.

Currently, 30 million children are receiving vitamin A supplementation, which is linked with DPT and oral polio under universal immunization to increase the coverage. Launching new kits will help in better implementation of national programmes going on in these directions. Government implemented the renewed weekly iron and folic acid supplementation (WIFS) January, 2013, to give iron supplementation to 13 crore young girls and boys.