An Eye Opener - The Grim Reality Of Indian Food Testing Labs

With several controversies around lead in Maggi, detergent in Mother Dairy Milk, larvae in Nestle NAN PRO 3 baby milk powder etc, concerns regarding food quality and safety are sky high.

According to a report in Indian Express, Dr Satya Prakash letters to government authorities brings to fore the sub-standard ways in which food in labs are tested. Dr. Satya Prakash is former director of the Central Food Laboratory in Kolkata. His letters throw light on how ill-equipped our food testing labs are and highlight the disconnect between regulations and reality in food safety.

In his latest letter dated June 12, to Health Minister JP Nadda and Prime Minister's Office, Dr. Prakash has stated that the labs run by states across India and also those run by Centre are ill-equipped to test the quality and standard of even common food items including fruits and vegetable, milk and carbonated beverages. He also mentioned that India is yet to lay down a proper "science-based standards" to test instant noodles. 

Dr. Prakash rightly also added that the test parameters for instant noodles that was sent by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to state laboratories did not cover MSG, the flavour enhancer, microbiological examinations and pesticide residue tests. 

"The business of instant noodles is around Rs 1,700 crore and (these) are consumed basically by the children. Hence there is an urgent need to prescribe standards for noodles," Dr Satya Prakash wrote in his letter.

The letter was written a week after Maggi was recalled from across the states in the country.

Dr Prakash retired in 2009. He also held additional charge of the Central Food Laboratory in Ghaziabad. He had written to the UPA government officials back in 2011, stating that no standards for processed cheese products had been laid out.

When contacted by Indian Express, in an email he replied: “I stand by what I had written to authorities for improving the working of existing food laboratories… so that the country may get state-of-the-art laboratories duly accredited by NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories).”

In a 2012 he had written to then health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, pointing out six referral laboratories under the ministry which weren't equipped enough to test various food categories. 

Here's what he had written in 2012:

Fruits and vegetables

No central or state food lab is NABL-accredited "for analysing/monitoring pesticide residues in fruits and vegetable products… as per the validated method prescribed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare." This included names of 36 state food labs that confirmed in RTI replies that they were not testing for pesticides in fruits and vegetables.

Carbonated beverages

Theses were not being tested by central or state labs, because of lack of “imported sophisticated instruments as required” after guidelines on tests were issued in 2008 which mandated testing at a minute level of 0.001 parts per million. The only centre in India that can conduct these tests is CFL in Mysore. 

Milk and milk products

No labs tests are conducted for “pesticide residues, heavy metals, microbial contamination, mycotoxins, veterinary drugs and melamine… essential parameters to declare the milk safe”.

Lack of competent staff and poor working conditions

Dr. Prakash's in his letter in 2012 and 2013 also wrote about the 'working conditions, functioning of the labs which were directly under the ministry and how it lacked competent staff who couldn't even analyse samples as per rules. 

His letter in 2013 addressed to then health secretary stated that no state lab was NABL-accredited for testing pesticides."Pure gases required for pesticide residues analysis are not available even in Kolkata; it has to be procured from Mumbai only. Thus, any one imagines the condition of State Laboratories situated in small cities/towns.” 

About Raxaul and Sonauli, Dr Prakash wrote, “No chemical or glass dealers are available. All the supplies are to be procured from outside to run the laboratory.” He also highlighted poor power supply in the interiors: "If electricity is available, the voltage will be so low that you cannot run the sophisticated equipment." Service centres of suppliers of foreign sophisticated equipment are situated only in the metros, he added.

The World Bank had approved a project on Food and Drug Capacity Building from 2003-08 and released money worth crores for upgrading Indian labs. However, in letters to health ministers in the last four years, Dr Prakash wrote that in most state and central laboratories, "highly sophisticated equipment" supplied under the project were "not opened or utilised at all".

Dr. Prakash's letters show us the grim reality of how there are no rules or standards that the Indian labs follow to test food products that millions of people across the nation consume.

It highlights the fact that our labs lack technical, competent staff, facilities, expertise and sophisticated equipment to test food items being consumed all over India. The rules and regulations in the country are so lax and standards of food testing so low that products that can cause serious health hazards are being sold in the open.

Safety is a serious concern and how soon will the government take measures to improve the situation is a question still to be be answered.

After Maggi, now Revital capsules banned in Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow :-

For not taking approval from Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), products from 40 famous companies including Revital capsules have been banned in Uttar Pradesh. A notice has been sent to the companies for taking an approval from the authorities.

Products will remain off market till they receive approval after being tested in laboratories. Stringent actions will be taken against the offenders.

According to a report in Hindi news daily, Food security official Harishankar Singh said that there are many private firms which are selling products on their own terms, even without taking any sale approval. State authorities have imposed a strict ban on such products till approval.

Recently, 2 minute noodles Maggi was banned nationwide for containing excessive lead and MSG, which is injurious to health.

DINAMALAR NEWS

Maggi Effect: Rs 1,700-cr teeth for food regulator

“The restructuring of FSSAI has been in the works for long. It has got nothing to do with the recall of Maggi Noodles or whatever has happened since then,” said officials.

Days after the recall of Maggi Noodles from India highlighted glaring gaps in the food regulatory structure, the Health Ministry has sent a Rs 1,700-crore proposal to the Union Cabinet for a sweeping revamp.

According to sources, the proposal focuses on four main areas: strengthening the state inspection apparatus, bolstering the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s manpower, giving the FSSAI more powers and ensuring that the authority has access to state-of-the-art technology.

“We have sent a proposal to the Cabinet to increase FSSAI’s manpower, both technical and field staff, and make sure that it has at its disposal the latest technologies in its laboratories,” a senior official in the Health Ministry told The Indian Express.

“Currently, it (FSSAI) is a rudimentary set-up. In fact, 16 states do not even have a food testing laboratory. The actual increase in staff strength will have to be worked out once the proposal is passed because revamping the state food safety set-up is a very important part of the plan,” he added.

An investigation by The Indian Express this month had revealed a number of shortcomings in the country’s food safety apparatus — at the Centre and states — including lack of staff, technology and accreditation for most state labs.

Last week, Tata Starbucks said it was “suspending” some ingredients from its outlets after The Indian Express reported that products used by the company and a number of other top brands, such as Kellogg’s and Venky’s, figured on a list of around 500 rejected products prepared by the national food safety regulator.

The official, meanwhile, stressed that that revamp was not connected to the recent controversy surrounding the recall of Nestle’s popular instant noodles after lab tests showed unsafe levels of lead in some samples.

“The restructuring of FSSAI has been in the works for long. It has got nothing to do with the recall of Maggi Noodles or whatever has happened since then,” the official said.

Sources said that the FSSAI currently has its own staff deployed in only five cities across the country, leaving the checking of imported foods mostly to state authorities and, at times, even to Customs officials.

Sources said the proposal would pump Rs 1,700 crore into the food safety administration apparatus over the next few years.

“A very important part of the plan is to hire more experts. At present, scientific work is mostly outsourced to committees formed for the purpose. For example, FSSAI has formed an 11-member expert committee to look at salt, sugar and fat content of Indian foods and recommend acceptable levels,” sources in the ministry said.

FSSAI sources said that till the Maggi fiasco, it had centred its checks around “items of mass consumption” like milk, milk products, edible oils and water because of the skeletal staff strength at the central and state levels.

“Maggi was the authority’s first foray into packaged food — triggered not by its own tests but because many states had started to find fault with it,” sources said.

“Currently, 99% of the food inspection function is with the states, that is why it is important to revamp state authorities. But there is also a realisation that a central authority needs to have its own staff on the field to avoid what happened in the case of Maggi Noodles. The authority was literally caught napping. Leaving it all to states has also meant that rejected product approval application information that is routinely made public by the authority is not paid heed to by states,” said an official.

Post Maggi stew, companies step up food safety vigil

Companies are also ensuring that their suppliers are compliant with food safety norms and say they would rather be out of stock than be given substandard products.

Opt for fresh audits at food labs, step up communication with consumers

NEW DELHI, JUNE 19: 

The Maggi controversy has made consumers more watchful about manufacturers’ claims, in turn making companies more cautious.

From getting fresh tests and audits at food labs to ensuring raw material quality and proactively communicating with consumers on the veracity of their labels, packaged food companies are pulling out all stops to convince buyers of their authenticity.

Companies are also ensuring that their suppliers are compliant with food safety norms and say they would rather be out of stock than be given substandard products.

Equinox Labs CEO Ashwin Bhadri said: “In the past two weeks alone, we have seen a huge increase in the number of enquiries from food companies on testing, audits, and compliance with food regulatory norms. Such queries have gone up by nearly six times from earlier (before the Maggi controversy).”

He said companies are looking at fresh tests and audits to ensure that they are compliant with Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) norms.

“Companies and FSSAI need to ensure the mechanisms in food safety are robust. Companies need to know that testing is just one aspect of food safety, and they also need to ensure audits are done across products and batches,” he added.

Food safety experts say the Maggi case has put the spotlight on the fact that the FSSAI is free to interpret the regulations and companies need to be clear on the same.

Aseem Soni, Director, Consumer Pack Vertical, Cargill India, said: “A lot of crude mustard oil available is not of the best quality. In our brand Nature Fresh, we are ensuring that we commence our quality checks from the mustard seeds.

“If we don’t get quality seeds, we don’t process, don’t produce and prefer to be out-of-stock rather than supply a suboptimal product.” In the long term the brand can only gain consumers if the quality is consistently delightful, he said. Another senior executive with a company that supplies raw materials to packaged food companies and restaurants, including MNCs, said they are becoming more cautious about sourcing raw materials.

More queries

Companies, cognizant of the fact that consumers are now increasingly aware, have stepped up communication about their product safety.

Said Vikram Agarwal, Director of Greendot Health Foods Ltd: “We are getting a lot more queries from consumers about our products. For example, consumers are asking us about labels we write on our Cornitos (nachos crisps) packs, such as zero transfat and zero cholesterol, and what it means and how are we saying that. Consumers are becoming more vigilant and this will help the overall packaged food industry.

Operation Ruchi to keep tabs on food additives

State wants food safety from farm to table

The Food Safety wing will launch Operation Ruchi, a Statewide initiative for food safety, to regulate the use of additives and flavour enhancers in food products, Health Minister V.S. Sivakumar has said.

The State will seek legislative means to ban misleading advertisements, mainly of junk and packaged foods.

He was speaking at a State-level workshop on Food Safety, organised by the Food Safety wing under the Department of Health, here, on Friday.

He said the potential of social media, online facilities, and WhatsApp messaging service would be used to promote food safety and also to help the public register complaints.

The government was planning initiatives to ensure that food safety was maintained from the farmland to the dinner table, he added.

Earlier, inaugurating the workshop, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said an organised movement was required in food production, with an accent on organic products, for the State to be self-sufficient in food.

Grama sabhas should take over the task of food production, including vegetables, utilising government’s farmlands for cultivation and with the help of agencies such as Kudumbasree, he said.

A model to emulate

North Kerala is self-sufficient in milk production, an achievement which the central and southern regions should aim for, he said.

At a session on modern food analytical methods, Director of Vimta labs Vasi Reddy said the future of safe food standards was quite complex, with new elements to be tested before food can be certified safe. If earlier, just heavy metal contamination was being tested for, today each item was being tested for hundreds of pesticide residue and microbial contamination.

The head of Meat Technology, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, George Oommen, said government departments would have to work together to ensure the safety of meat and meat-based products because pesticide and chemical residues in foods of animal origin enter the food chain through feed and water.

Six other noodle brands clear lead test

THE SAMPLES HAVE GLUTAMIC ACID RANGING BETWEEN 0.002 AND 0.0015 PPM

After Maggi, samples of other brands of instant noodles too have cleared the lead and arsenic tests in the State. However, the tests have also revealed the presence of glutamic acid ranging between 0.002 and 0.0015 ppm in the samples, according to food safety officials.

Following directions from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), State food safety officials had sent 13 samples of six brands of instant noodles — Sunfeast, Top Ramen, 1 to 3, Surya, Nissin, and Yippie — for tests. The FSSAI had directed the State to submit the reports by June 20.

State FSSAI Deputy Director H.S. Shivakumar said that as the Food Safety and Standards Act did not specify the permissible limits for glutamic acid in food samples, the FSSAI would have to take the final call on what to infer from the results. “The samples have cleared tests for all other parameters. We are not concerned about glutamic acid as it is not on the list of parameters,” he said.

Reply on Maggi awaited

The Health Department had sent the test reports of Maggi samples, which had also shown the presence of 0.053 ppm of glutamic acid, to the FSSAI for clarification. “We are still awaiting the reply,” the official said.

He said samples of the other brands were tested at the FSSAI-identified TUV SUD India Private Ltd., which is NABL accredited. He said there was no need for the samples to be tested again as the controversy was only about Maggi noodles.

The temporary ban imposed on the instant noodles brand in the State following the FSAAI directions would continue till further advice, he said.

Mother Dairy chilling centres’ licences cancelled, get new ones on same day

Agra: Agra Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA) initiated action against Mother Dairy after finding detergent in samples tested but is helpless in halting operations of its plants. An official said the very day the department suspended the licences to two chilling centres here, the company obtained new licences under a new name. 

Agra FSDA had suspended the licences of two Mother Dairy MCCs located in Fatehabad and Bhadrauli on June 16, 2015. On the very same day, officials were informed that the plants had obtained new licences from central food safety and standards authority department, Lucknow under the name of Sahaj Milk Producers Company Ltd. 

FSDA's designated officer Ramnaresh Yadav, who exposed the adulteration, told TOI, "It is amazing to see that the MCCs whose operations were stopped by us were up and running the same day once again. However, this will not weaken our case, and legal action will be taken against Mother Dairy for adulteration." 

Yadav added that as Mother Dairy's nominated person, who is responsible for maintaining the quality standards for the two chilling centres, machinery and other staff are the same in the "new" company. It shows that Sahaj is a sister concern of Mother Dairy. 

"Not convinced with the Meerut lab's findings, Mother Dairy sent the samples to the Central Food Laboratory in Kolkata, where further tests showed that one of the samples had detergent in it. The second sample tested positive for extraneous fat," he added. 

The official added that the permission to file against Mother Dairy, two chilling centres from where milk samples were collected and company's nominated person has been sought from the UP food safety commissioner. 

An FIR would be registered against them under section 59 (1) of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (selling unsafe food items) in the court of additional chief judicial magistrate. 

However, Mother Dairy has denied that the milk supplied in pouches was of substandard quality. "It is very unfortunate that the samples collected at the village level are being wrongly attributed to Mother Dairy," Sandeep Ghosh, business head for milk at Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Pvt. Ltd., had told reporters here earlier. 

"We would like to clarify that at Mother Dairy, milk undergoes four levels of thorough testing — at input, processing, dispatches and even at market level. Every tanker of milk reaching our plants passes a series of 23 stringent quality tests to check any deviation from defined parameters," the official added. 

After Lead In Maggi, It’S Pesticides In Haldiram’S

NEW DELHI: After the Maggi fiasco, domestic snack maker Haldiram’s faces “refusal” of its fried namkeen and candies in the US. The US Food and Drug Administration has refused 90 batches of Haldiram’s products in the past five months, since January.

Of the total 171 batches of snacks imported that the USFDA refused, 90 were from Haldiram’s, making India the largest contributor to refused snacks imported into the US.

According to the USFDA site, Haldiram has been charged under violation of 402(a)(2)(B), which defines adulteration. The charges elaborated states: “The article is subject to refusal of admission pursuant to section 801(a)(3) in that it appears to be adulterated because it contains a pesticide chemical.”

Apart from fried snacks, batches of Haldiram’s candies are also under the USFDA lens. When tests were done, sulphites were found, which Haldiram did not disclose on the wrapper. “It appears that the food is fabricated from two or more ingredients and the label does not list the common or usual name of each ingredient,” US FDA said.

US FDA spokesperson Jennifer Corbett Dooren said that “FDA issues a notice of action to firms” once a refusal happens. As per the notice the firm is entitled for an informal hearing to provide the testimony regarding the admissibility of the product. If it fails to prove evidence that the product meets compliance, it will have to either export the product out of the US, or destroy it within 90 days. Haldiram continues to say that it maintains the standards prescribed by USFDA.

Earlier tests on Maggi samples in labs had showed lead content with traces of monosodium glutamate (MSG). The health and family welfare department directed Nestle to recall all its stocks throughout the Indian market.

The government explained that ban on its sale deems the product as "expired" one and hence the recalled Maggi noodles are considered hazardous for consumption and need to be destroyed.

The health department has also booked cases against Nestle under sections 20, 53 and 54 of the FSSAI Act of 2006. Accordingly, Nestle has been accused of issuing misleading advertisements, selling food product for human consumption containing extraneous matter, contaminants, naturally occurring toxic substances, heavy metals etc.

Meanwhile, the government has also sent three letters to FSSAI seeking clarity on the permissible limits of MSG. The letters were dispatched earlier last week by the health department.

Department sources said the state government had obtained "special permission'' from the Centre to conduct a second test on Maggi and eight other brands of noodles.

Haldiram's is a major Indian sweets and snacks manufacturer based in Nagpur, Maharashtra, India. The company has manufacturing plants in Nagpur, New Delhi, Kolkata, Bikaner. Haldiram's has its own retail chain stores and a range of restaurants in Nagpur and Delhi. In contemporary times, Haldiram's products are exported to several countries worldwide, including Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, United Arab Emirates, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Thailand and others.