No stay by High Court on ban of tobacco products in Delhi: Government

New Delhi: The Delhi government on Thursday said that the High Court has not put an stay on the notification banning manufacturing, storage, distribution or sale of tobacco products in the national capital.

According to Delhi government's Food and Safety Department, the High Court has only restrained the department not to take any coercive action against a petitioner, who had filed a case against the ban.

Department claimed that some of the tobacco traders were under the impression that the notification has been stayed by the court following media reports in this regard.

According to Delhi government's Food and Safety Department, the High Court has only restrained the department not to take any coercive action against a petitioner, who had filed a case against the ban.

"The notification of ban on tobacco products has not been stayed. All the food safety officers of the department have been directed to keep a vigil in the market and set up their enforcement activity to check and lift sample of such tobacco products as have banned under the notification," a senior government official said.

Department has advised tobacco traders not to violate the provision of the notification.

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Healthy drinks to beat the summer heat

Food Safety wing plans to INSPECT TEMPORARY SHOPS

Come summer, and a host of temporary shops come up on the roadsides all over the city offering a variety of drinks.

Ranging from ‘sherbat’ to fruit juices, cool drinks and watermelons, these shops offer a range of drinks. With mercury rising, people buy these drinks and fruits in large quantities, looking for a respite from the searing heat. However, the public must exercise a lot of caution as water-borne diseases spread quickly with unsafe and unhygienic handling, says R. Kathiravan, Designated officer of Tamil Nadu Food Safety and Drug Administration Department (Food Safety wing)

While the Food Safety Wing has enumerated around 850 roadside eateries, who always put up shop in the same areas, these vendors offerings juices come up only in summer and are highly mobile, making it difficult to regulate.

They mostly operate using pushcarts and do not stay in one place for long. While many eateries have obtained licences from the Food Safety Wing, the push-carts never do so. As a result, the quality of their products is difficult to ascertain.

Those having registered are subject to frequent checks.

The best way to ensure safety, Dr. Kathiravan says, is to ask the fruit vendors to cut the fruits in their presence and avoiding flavoured drinks that appear to have excess colour.

Further, he says, consumers must also, to the extent possible, drink fruits in disposable cups.

Many of these shops were located beneath trees with no water source nearby. Hence, it was highly suspect if they washed properly the utensils and cups in which the food and drinks were served.

“It is also ideal if people went for things like coconut where it is almost impossible to adulterate or tamper.”

He says the food safety wing is gearing up to conduct inspections in fruit juice outlets to crack down on unhygienic handling of fruits.

Tamta asks CMOs to take action against illegal butcher shops

DEHRADUN: Joint commissioner (food) B R Tamta has asked chief medical officers (CMO) of different districts to take action against illegal slaughter houses in the state. A writ warning has been issued to the CMOs for failing to issue strict directives to butcher shops in the past. The action came after a letter was sent to the chief secretary by People for Animals (PFA) authorities alleging operation of illegal slaughter houses across the state. 

Gauri Maulekhi, member secretary, PFA, said, "Not a single slaughter house in the state follow norms which have been laid out under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. Meat is sold without checking if it is safe to consume. No veterinary doctors have been deputed at slaughter houses so far to undergo checks. Meat is also sold in the open. Moreover, the food department has issued a large number of unauthorized licenses. We brought these issues up with the chief secretary nearly two months back." 

S P Aggarwal, CMO, Dehradun, expressed ignorance over reports that licenses were issued in large numbers saying that the food safety wing is responsible for it. 

Maulekhi further said how basic facilities such as water supply, drainage systems, stun guns or incinerators remain absent in the shops. Checks on livestock are also not done to ensure if they are sick or pregnant before being butchered. Former chief secretary had directed the commissioner of Garhwal and Kumaon Mandal, district magistrates and the food safety commissioner to undergo inspection of slaughter houses at various parts of the state but little has been done so far. Similarly, directives to appoint veterinary doctors issued in all the municipal corporations have fallen on deaf ears.

Sensor that can detect spoiled food

New York, April 16 (IANS) Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have devised an inexpensive sensor that can tell consumers if the food in their grocery store or refrigerator is safe to eat.

The portable sensor, which consists of chemically modified carbon nanotubes, works by detecting the gases emitted by rotting meat.

"The device could be deployed in 'smart packaging' that would offer much more accurate safety information than the expiration date on the package," said senior study author professor Timothy Swager from MIT.

It could also cut down on food waste. "People are constantly throwing things out that probably aren't bad," Swager added.

In this study, the researchers tested the sensor on four types of meat: pork, chicken, cod and salmon. They found that when refrigerated, all four types stayed fresh over four days and when left unrefrigerated, the samples all decayed, but at varying rates.

There are other sensors that can detect the signs of decaying meat but they are usually large and expensive instruments that require expertise to operate.

"The advantage we have is these are the cheapest, smallest, easiest-to-manufacture sensors," Swager said.

The new device also requires very little power and could be incorporated into a wireless platform that Swager's lab recently developed that allows a regular smartphone to read output from carbon nanotube sensors such as this one.

The paper describing the invention was published in the journal Angewandte Chemie.