CMO Dmu issues directives

DIMAPUR

Office of the chief medical officer (CMO) Dimapur, as per the directives from the food safety and standard authority of India (FSSAI), has directed all food items manufacturers including the local homemade producers under Dimapur jurisdiction, that they should put proper labels on each packet. In a press release, CMO Dimapur Dr.M.A. Wati stated that each packet should have the following information on the label: name of food, ingredients used, veg or non-veg logo, date of manufacturer, lot number/batch number/code number, best before, proper packers address and FSSA license/registration number, with FSSAI logo, which is mandatory under 2.1 (packaging and labelling) regulation, 2011. 

 Office of CMO Dimapur cautioned that non compliance with the directive would be an offence punishable under the said Act and Rules. Meanwhile, CMO Dimapur also directed bakeries, hotels, stalls or any shop selling food items not to sell or store such misbranded food articles. 

Any shop keeper found violating the above mentioned directives shall be penalized under Food Safety and Standard Act, 20-6 by the food safety enforcement personnel/food safety regulatory authority at any time without warning, CMO warned.

Only 3 Aravana tins per pilgrim

Production curtailed after extra moisture content found

Aravana distribution at Sabarimala was badly hit on Saturday morning by the drastic reduction in its daily production. The Food Safety Department had earlier imposed certain restrictions on the production of the prasadom after excess moisture content was found in a batch.

Devaswom executive officer V.S. Jayakumar said the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) was forced to restrict Aravana supply to three tins to each pilgrim from Saturday owing to the short supply of the prasadom.

The Food Safety Department has fixed the moisture content in Aravana to a maximum of 10 per cent. A ‘koottu’ (12,000 tins of 250 ml each) of Aravana manually prepared at the Aravana plant recently was found to have a moisture content of 10.8 per cent.