25,000 litres of edible oil seized

An enforcement team of Food Safety and Drug administration (FSDA) on Friday raided five edible oil mills and seized more than 25,000 litres of oil.

FDA official H S Abdi said the team found violation of standards set by FSDA. A few of mills were running without licence. The team also collected samples of Mustard oil, rice bran oil and refined soyabeen oil.

He informed that around 23 tonnes of edible oil worth Rs 12 lakhs was seized from a mill. Around 330 litres of edible oil worth Rs 20,000 was seized from another mill. Around 210 litres of mustard oil and 500 litres of rice bran oil were also seized.

FSDA team also raided two food joints and collected samples of colour, ice cream mixture and cream. Officials destroyed cake wrapped in printing paper. Samples of biscuit, chocolate, cherry and pine apple cake were collected.

Raids were conducted on the directives of commissioner, Food Safety and Drug Administration, Badal Chatterjee.

In festive season, anti-adulteration drive in full swing

Meerut: As city residents relish sweets and cakes in the New Year, the food safety and standard department's (FSSD) anti-adulteration drive is in full swing. The department has already sent 30 suspicious samples to a food testing laboratory in Lucknow in the last week. 

The drive, which started on December 24, is set to go on till January 5. "The food department team is conducting regular checks by sending suspicious food items to the laboratory for testing. If any sub-standard food item is found, the person will be dealt with as per rules," said VK Verma, designated officer, FSSD. 

Even though there is a laboratory in Meerut, on the Chaudhary Charan Singh University (CCSU) campus, the samples were sent to a lab in Lucknow to avoid any manipulation. 

"The food items are preserved and sent to Lucknow . The result reaches us within 20 days of the courier being sent," said J.P Singh, chief food safety officer. 

The food department is focusing on milk products, cooking oil, spices and artificial colouring in food. Field visits and sample testing will be intensified this week and violators will be booked under the Food Safety and Standards Act (2006). 

Some city residents have already fallen prey to adulterated food. "I got Christmas cake from a friend which was purchased from a city bakery. I suffered from food poisoning after consuming the cake. Since then, I have not had any sweets from outside," said Garv Gupta, a city resident.

Food safety drives for state school kalolsavam

KOZHIKODE: The officials of the food safety department in the district will conduct special drives and deploy officials round-the-clock to check the hygiene and quality of the food items and water being served at all types of eatery outlets in the city during the state school kalolsavam . 

The food safety officials here has decided to conduct the inspections and awareness programme prior to the beginning of the school kalolsavam in the wake of special direction received from the office of the commissioner of food safety following the request put forward by the deputy director of education here. The food safety officials will conduct the first drive from January 6 to January 13, covering all the food outlets comprising of make-shift eateries , bakeries, hotels, restaurants and cool bars to ensure that people arriving in the city during the school fest get only quality food. They will conduct inspections to urge the owners to cook only quality food in hygienic condition. The officials will also put up the toll-free number of food safety officer and mobile numbers of respective food inspectors on the notice board so that the public can pass information to the officials in case they find problem regardingthe quality of food or if they are being charged exorbitant prices. 

A control room will also be set up which will function round-the-clock from January 14 to 21 exclusively to cater the needs of the public thronging to the various venues of the school kalolsavam. The second drive will be held from January 14 to 21. Inspections will be conducted at the hotels and make shift eateries functioning near the surrounding areas of the eighteen venues of the school kalolsavam . 

C T Anil Kumar, assistant commissioner, food safety department, said that the first drive to be held from January 6 to 13 aims at regulating the food chain business in the city. "The drive and daily inspections are being conducted to ensure safe food to thousands who will be visiting the city during the art festival time. Five food safety officials and mobile squad of the department will carry out the inspections. Stringent actions will be taken against those who serve low quality food items and water," he said.

A package with add-ons

Recent incident of a tadpole in a bubbletop can brings into question quality of retailed water

With Chennai Metrowater increasingly unable to meet the demand of the expanding city, packaged drinking water helps bridge the gap. However, there are questions over the quality of some of the water sold.

The proliferation of unlicensed packaged drinking water units in the city’s fringes often leads to supply of poor quality water. Recently, a family in suburban Madambakkam were in for a shock when they found a dead tadpole inside a bubbletop can. The can was sealed with a cap, and had the mandatory details of brand name, batch number, and date of packing affixed.

The company owner agreed to replace the water can, but only after a series of calls. Speaking to The Hindu, the owner of the packaged water firm said they would put stringent measures in place to ensure that such an incident did not take occur again.

Though a stray incident, it brings into question the quality of retailed water in the city. Despite regular checks by government officials, the growing demand for packaged drinking water has led to the mushrooming of illegal manufacturing units. “The demand for packaged water has increased due to poor quality of groundwater, and dwindling supply of Palar water,” said L. Sundararaman, a resident of Chitlapakkam.

While packaged water products need to carry an ISI mark, complaints are registered with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), Southern Region. Officials of BIS said they receive 15 complaints in a year.

“But, these mostly relate to substandard quality, stench and suspended particles in water. We have not received any complaints about dead insects or tadpoles found in water, so far,” said an official.

In the past one year, BIS officials have conducted nearly 20 raids and cancelled the licences of three units for misuse of the ISI mark. “It is important that the seal is intact. Consumers should also get a bill. Once the complaint is lodged, we will take a sample. When the fault is proven, until it is corrected, the manufacturer cannot use the ISI mark. They may even lose their licence,” a BIS official said.

Officials of Tamil Nadu food safety and drug administration department (food safety wing) said manufacturing units are instructed to affix a seal of their brand on the caps of 20-litre cans.

Consumer activist T. Sadagopan pointed out there were no checks on water sachets sold at crowded places such as bus terminuses and railway stations. Testing of water and food products for quality needed to be done at the district level to tackle the problem of fake products, he added.

NGT blasts MPCB on meat processing units

NAGPUR: The Western Zone bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT), Pune, blasted Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) for not following the Supreme Court directives while issuing licence to meat processing units.

The NGT disappointment comes while disposing of a PIL filed by Kanakrai Savadia, president of city-based Sukrut Nirman Charitable Trust in 2012. The PIL was first filed in the HC bench but was transferred to NGT on June 18, 2014.

Savadia, who works for animal welfare and environment damage caused due to slaughter houses, had challenged setting up of two meat processing and cold storage units — Shahin Frozen Foods and Best Cold Storage Private Limited in Taroda near the temple town of Shegaon.

MPCB, Akola, gave consent for the units with a capacity of 1,200 tonnes per month and cold storage of meat and vegetables of equal capacity. According to Savadia, to keep 1,200 tonnes capacity of the meat unit operational, about 10,000-12,000 large animals will need to be slaughtered.

"As per the 2007 livestock census, there were only 16,047 buffaloes in Buldhana district. The number must have gone down further in last five years," says Savadia (80), who appeared in person before NGT.

Savadia pleaded that the slaughtering of animals would pollute water sources and waterborne diseases would affect local residents. To prevent such a situation, the petitioner demanded the consent given to the proposed unit be withdrawn.

However, NGT on December 24, partly allowed the PIL, directing MPCB to see that slaughter houses maintained record of sourcing of slaughtered animals along with necessary details of clearances as laid down by the apex court.

NGT also asked MPCB member-secretary to review environmental performance and time-bound directions for upgrading of pollution control systems in next four weeks.

"All the compliances are needed to be adhered to by the industries in four months. In case of failure, MPCB shall issue closure directions to the industry, which shall not be revoked without the permission of NGT," ruled Justice VR Kingaonkar (judicial members and Dr Ajay Deshpande (expert member).

NGT also asked MPCB to visit the two industries on bimonthly basis for next two years to ascertain compliance. Interestingly, the tribunal also directed the two units to pay Rs50,000 to the applicant towards the cost of application.

Impact of NGT Ruling:

* Judgement clearly indicates that MPCB officials are not following pollution control norms and SC orders while issuing licenses to meat processing units.

* MPCB shirking responsibilities of sourcing of the raw material (meat) from slaughter houses.

*Now MPCB officials will have to mention source of raw meat. It should be approved by Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for domestic consumption and by Agricultural Produce Export Development Authority (APEDA) for exports.

* Necessary environmental safeguards for meat industries should be considered by MPCB before issuing the consent to start the industry. It is must to provide necessary pollution control system to achieve specified norms for meat processing industry.

* Even after the lower court rulings in favour of industries, now meat cannot be stored in cold storages unless source of meat is known and that should be from approved slaughter houses.

* As per the rules for transport of meat, it should be transported in a vehicle having refrigerated facilities

Contaminated ice spreads diarrhoea, typhoid, jaundice



Officials Fail To Keep Tabs On Manufacturers

Summer or winter, a drink with crushed ice could be anyone's temptation. But health experts caution that contaminated ice can cause not just a sore throat, but serious diseases like jaundice, typhoid and diarrhoea.

While there seems to be a spurt in such diseases in Chennai, the food safety and drug administration department is doing precious little, citing shortage of staff. Testing ice samples is probably the last thing on its agenda.

Officials who have visited ice manufacturing units say most of them have an unhygienic environment, and use untreated water from borewells or water tankers. Worse, ice blocks in several units are wrapped in dirty sacks and often handled by workers with bare hands.

A senior food safety official said they have not inspected ice manufacturing units in several months, if not years.And the reason is as scary as it is flippant. “We have not received any complaint of contaminated ice. There is no way to visually differentiate good ice from the bad. It is a Herculean task to inspect each roadside vendor to check the quali ty of ice,“ he said.

Most fresh fruit juice stalls in Chennai prefer cheaper commercial ice, sourced from fish vendors. These slabs of ice are made in unlicensed units that compromise on quality .Such ice may contain bacteria such as Escherichia coli and salmonella, besides chemicals like lead and arsenic.

Dr P Senthur Nambi, infectious diseases consultant at Apollo Hospitals, said contaminated ice, in fact, preserve disease-causing organisms. “Bacteria and viruses in frozen water remain active to harm the human body ,“ he said.

Chennai Fishing Harbour Ice Block Manufacturers Association secretary J Chandreshkaran said only a few elite clubs and hotels in the city buy ice made of remorse osmosis-treated water. A block of industrial ice costs `2 per kg at wholesale and `3 or `4 at retail. Ice from ROtreated water costs `6-7 per kg wholesale and the retail price can go up to `10-12 per kg,“ he said.

Corporation officials said they don't have any data on ice manufacturing units in the city. “The absence of quality standards and guidelines for manufacturing ice hampers monitoring,“ said an official.

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