எண்ணெய் பாக்கெட் வாங்கும்போது ஏமாறாமல் இருப்பது எப்படி?

தொடரும் கலப்படங்கள், விதிமீறல்கள் | நுகர்வோர் சங்கத் தலைவர் விளக்கம்*

சமையல் எண்ணெய் பாக்கெட், பாட்டில் வாங்கும்போது நுகர்வோர் விழிப்புடன் இருக்க வேண்டும் என்று இந்திய நுகர்வோர் சங்கத் தலைவர் நிர்மலா தேசிகன் கூறியுள்ளார்.

தமிழகத்தில் உள்ள சில பிரபல எண்ணெய் தயாரிப்பு நிறுவனங்கள் பாமாயில், பருத்தி விதை எண்ணெய், தவிட்டு எண்ணெய் போன்றவற்றை ரீபைண்டு செய்து கடலை எண்ணெய், சூரியகாந்தி எண்ணெய் என்ற பெயரில் கலப்படம் செய்து விற்பதாக இந்திய நுகர்வோர் சங்கம் (கன்ஸ்யூமர்ஸ் அசோசியேஷன் ஆஃப் இந்தியா) சமீபத்தில் தெரிவித்தது.

இந்த அமைப்பின் தலைவர் நிர்மலா தேசிகன், நுகர்வோர் விழிப்புடன் இருக்க வேண்டிய அவசியம் குறித்து ‘தி இந்து’விடம் பகிர்ந்துகொண்டார். அவர் கூறியதாவது:

ஒரு பொருளை வாங்கும்போது, பாக்கெட் மீது அச்சிடப்பட்டுள்ள விவரங்களை நன்கு படித்துப் பார்க்க வேண்டும். விலை, காலாவதியாகும் நாள், அக்மார்க் முத்திரை, உணவுப் பாதுகாப்புத் துறையின் முத்திரையுடன் கூடிய லைசென்ஸ் எண், எடையளவு, எண்ணெய்யில் உள்ள சத்துக்கள் பற்றிய தகவல்கள், ‘ஆர்ஜிமோன் எண்ணெய் கலப்படமில்லாதது’ என்றெல்லாம் அச்சிடப்பட்டுள்ளதா என்று பார்க்க வேண்டும்.

பாக்கெட் உணவுப் பொருட்களைக் கண்காணிப்பதும், தவறு செய்யும் வணிகர் மீது உரிய நடவடிக்கை எடுப்பதும் தொழிலாளர் துறையின் கீழ் செயல்படும் எடையளவுச் சட்டப் பிரிவு, அக்மார்க் தர முத்திரை பிரிவு, உணவுப் பாதுகாப்புத் துறை ஆகிய 3 துறையினரின் கடமை. இத்துறைகளில் போதிய பணியாளர்கள் இல்லாததால் கடைகளுக்கு நேரில் சென்று மாதிரிகளை சோதனை செய்வது, தவறு செய்யும் வணிகர்கள் மீது நடவடிக்கை எடுப்பது போன்ற பணிகளை அவர்கள் முழுவீச்சில் மேற்கொள்வது இல்லை. இதை சாதகமாக பயன்படுத்திக்கொள்ளும் சில வணிகர்கள், விதிமுறைகளை மீறி தங்கள் இஷ்டத்துக்கு உணவுப் பொருட்களை பாக்கெட் செய்து விற்கின்றனர்.

எடையளவுச் சட்டப்படி ஒரு லிட்டர், 500 மி.லி., 250 மி.லி. அளவுகளில் மட்டுமே எண்ணெய் விற்கவேண்டும். ஆனால் 850 மி.லி., 300 மி.லி. என்றெல்லாம் விற்கின்றனர் கொலஸ்ட் ரால் ஃப்ரீ, கொலஸ்ட்ரால் ஃபைட்டர் என விளம்பரம் செய்வதும், ரீபைண்டு ஆயில் என்பதோடு சூப்பர், அல்ட்ரா, மைக்ரோ என்கிற வார்த்தைகளை சேர்த்து விளம்பரம் செய்வதும் தவறு.

‘பிளெண்டட் எடிபிள் வெஜிடபிள் ஆயில்’ என்ற பெயரில் சமையல் எண்ணெய்களில் 20 சதவீதம் வரை பிற உணவு எண்ணெய்களை கலந்து விற்க அரசு அனுமதித்துள்ளது. என் னென்ன விகிதத்தில் என்னென்ன உணவு எண்ணெய்கள் சேர்க்கப் பட்டுள்ளன என்ற விவரத்தை பாக்கெட்டில் கட்டாயம் அச்சிட வேண்டும். மேலும், குறிப்பிட்ட ஒரு எண்ணெய் வித்தின் படத்தை மட்டுமே போட்டு விற்கக்கூடாது.

10 ஆண்டுகளுக்கு முன்பு ஆர்ஜிமோன் ஆயில் பயன்படுத்திய சிலர் ஆக்ராவில் இறந்தனர். அதன் பிறகு, உணவு எண்ணெய்யாக ஆர்ஜிமோன் ஆயிலை பயன்படுத்த அரசு தடை விதித்தது. ‘ஆர்ஜிமோன் ஆயில் இல்லை’ என எண்ணெய் பாக்கெட்களில் அச்சிடுவதும் கட்டாய மாக்கப்பட்டது. அவ்வாறு அச்சிடப் படாமல் தற்போதும் சில சமையல் எண்ணெய் பாக்கெட்கள் விற்கப்படுகின் றன. இதையும் நுகர்வோர்கள் கவனித்து வாங்க வேண்டும்.

ஆய்வில் நாங்கள் கண்டறிந்த மோசடி விவரங்களை எடையளவு துறை, அக்மார்க் பிரிவு, உணவுப் பாதுகாப்புத் துறையினருக்கு புகாராக அனுப்பியுள்ளோம். நுகர்வோர் நலன் கருதி இந்த பிரிவுகளில் கூடுதல் பணியாளர்களை அரசு நியமிக்க வேண்டும். இவ்வாறு நிர்மலா தேசிகன் கூறினார்.

கலப்பட எண்ணெய் பற்றி சந்தேகமா?

கலப்பட எண்ணெய் தொடர்பான கூடுதல் விவரங்கள், சந்தேகங்களுக்கு ‘கன்ஸ்யூமர்ஸ் அசோசியேஷன் ஆஃப் இந்தியா அமைப்பை 044-24494573, 24494577 ஆகிய தொலைபேசி எண்களில் திங்கள் முதல் வெள்ளி வரை காலை 10 மணியில் இருந்து மாலை 5.30 மணி வரை தொடர்பு கொள்ளலாம். caiindia1@gmail.com என்கிற மின்னஞ்சல் மூலமாகவும் தொடர்பு கொள்ளலாம்.

KAALAIKATHIR NEWS

KAALAIKATHIR NEWS

Ignores Task Force report; FSSAI to frame Product Approval norms again

New Delhi

The Task Force constituted by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) headed by Dr V Prakash to review the process of Product Approval had recommended that proprietary food products using approved ingredients and additives should not require Product Approval. While FSSAI is silent about this Task Force report, it wants to draft new regulations on Product Approval for which it has recently released a notification seeking legal assistance.

The Task Force gave its report in April this year, much before Supreme Court upheld Bombay High Court order quashing the Product Approval advisory. After that, FSSAI had sought help from a legal consultant to frame policy for the same Product Approval process while it had withheld the draft regulations framed by the Task Force.

Further it was observed by the Task Force that it was a basic agreed position that approval should be for new or novel ingredients or technology and not for product formulations or brands.

The Task Force commented, “While going through the document (it framed) and from the discussions held in the Task Force meetings, there appears to be a lack of clarity on the way proprietary foods (non-standardised) are regulated currently.”

The reason was that there were already laws and regulations that were governing proprietary food. It further commented, “We would like to reiterate that proprietary foods are already regulated by various horizontal regulations of FSSAI and hence proprietary food do not require any recipe by recipe approval. Like standardised products, all proprietary foods also need to comply to the relevant provisions laid down in the following Food Safety and Standards Rules and Regulations, a) The Food Safety and Standards Rules, b) The Food Safety and Standards (Food Product Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, c) The Food Safety and Standards (Packaging & Labelling) Regulations, d) The Food Safety and Standards (Contaminants, Toxins and Residues) Regulations, e) The Food Safety and Standards (Laboratory and Sampling Analysis) Regulations, f) The Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restriction on Sales) Regulations. Hence what require approval are only those ingredients /additives and technologies which are not permitted yet or are not mentioned in the regulations and may not be regulated adequately.”

The issue of Product Approval in recent times has been a serious bone of contention between the apex food regulator FSSAI and the food industry. The issue has taken its toll on both sides, ban on Nestle’s Maggi, and transfer of FSSAI’s CEO YS Malik to NITI Aayog.

FSSAI constituted a Task Force on September 8, 2014, and October 17, 2014, comprising 17 members representing different sectors such as food industry, consumer organisations, scientific experts and food safety commissioners of states to look into the present process of Product Approval and for framing draft regulations on the Food Product Approval System in FSSAI.

Industry insiders say that the whole process of Product Approval is actually retrograde in nature and is not prevalent in any other reputed/comparable standard in any country. The reasons for all this controversy is lack of understanding of ground realities specially in regard to diversity of food in our country specially traditional and ethnic food with long history of safe use.

Govt gets ready but vendors don't want the `unfriendly' Act

New Delhi:

Almost two years after the Street Vendors' Act was passed, Delhi government is preparing to implement it.However, street vendors aren't happy . The National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) has now written to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to make the draft more vendor-friendly .

According to the draft scheme, vendors can't cook, can work only from sunrise to sunset, can't leave goods at the site, won't get power or water connections, can't make noise to attract customers and also have to ensure patrons don't park in front of their stall. The scheme proposes fines ranging between Rs 250 and Rs 2,000 per day if these rules are flouted.

There will also be biometric registration of all street vendors who will have to display their certificate at the stall. Only voters registered in Delhi will be given certificates. Also, vendors will have to pay monthly charges to the civic bodies and, unlike the current practice, they won't be allowed to sell their certificates.

Vendors' associations say these clauses aren't practical.“There shouldn't be a blanket ban on cooking. It is impractical. The working hours are ridiculous. Electricity and water connections should be given wherever possible. The rules are not vendor-friendly and are against the basic spirit of the Act,“ said Arbind Singh, national coordinator, NASVI.

Associations also claim the scheme is aimed at weakening the role of the Town Vending Committee (TVC) as it proposes to give all powers to a nodal officer and local bodies.“There is no need for a nodal officer. Local bodies have the power to take decisions but they have to work on the recommendations of the TVC,“ Singh added.

Delhi government will have to conduct a survey to identify genuine vendors. As per the Act, all vendors present on the day of the survey will have to be considered.However, vendors' associations fear this may lead to an increase in new vendors.

“If the present scheme is implemented, it will only lead to more chaos and harassment of vendors,“ said Singh.

When contacted, a senior government official said, “We will look into the suggestions made by NASVI. However, we can't promise that the policy will be completely changed.“

DINAMALAR NEWS

Spurt in pesticide-laced vegetables across India

NEW DELHI: It is well-known that vegetables sold in major cities contain pesticides, but it has now emerged that these harmful chemicals are present in alarmingly high doses in greens across the country. 

A report by the agriculture ministry showed that there has been an almost two-fold increase in the number of samples having pesticides above the permitted maximum residue level (MRL) in vegetables, fruits, meat and spices in the past seven years. In 2008-09, 1.4% of samples tested failed the MRL test (183 out of 13,348 samples) while the figure went up to 2.6% in 2014-15 (543 out of 20,618 samples).

Vegetables accounted for over 56% of the samples which had more MRL than the limit set by the food regulator. The major culprits were green chilli, cauliflower, cabbage, brinjal, okra, tomato, capsicum and coriander leaves, according to the annual report on Monitoring of Pesticide Residues at National Level (2014-15). The samples were picked up from mandis, retail shops and also from farm gates. 

The maximum number of failed samples in most test centres was from the vegetable family. For example, in Anand, out of 54 samples with MRL over permissible level, 42 were vegetable samples. It was 17 out of 34 samples in Kalyani, a suburb of Kolkata, and 14 out of 15 in Solan.

In Delhi, the situation was equally alarming. Out of 41 samples with high presence of pesticides, 31 were vegetables. These included spinach, coriander leaves, capsicum and okra. A large part of vegetables available in Delhi is grown along the Yamuna and in nearby regions. The data showed that in Gurgaon, of the 24 failed samples, 11 were vegetables. 

Similarly, in Mumbai, out of the 38 samples with high pesticide content, 25 were vegetables and in Port Blair, all eight failed samples were from this category. In Hyderabad, 27 of 51 such samples were vegetables and in Jaipur, it was seven out of 10 samples. 

Recently, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had proposed regulations for heavy metal content in a whole range of food items including vegetables to hold traders accountable and also to persuade Indian farmers to do responsible farming and adopt good practices. 

"In developed countries, consumers get safe food, including fresh vegetables. Once we have standards and there is a system in place to carry out tests instantly and disseminate the information to people, that will create an atmosphere where everyone in the production and supply chain will behave responsibly," said a government official. 

Interestingly, the agriculture ministry's report showed that the number of samples having high dose of pesticide was more in samples picked up from mandis than the ones collected from the farm gate.

`Safe-to-eat' vegetables grown in Kerala

Once again it has been proved that vegetables can be grown in Kerala even without spraying chemical fertilizers or pesticides.

Kochi: Once again it has been proved that vegetables can be grown in Kerala without spraying chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Researchers from the Agriculture university took 165 samples of vegetables from the farms across Kerala and found that 163 (98.7%) of them met the 'safe to eat ' criteria.

The latest report containing details of the 165 vegetable samples taken between January 1, 2015 and March 31 were released. The reports of each district are given separately.

Though traces of toxic chemicals were found in one of the sample collected from farmers of Kasargod, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has not fixed the pesticide limit.

However, no trace of toxic chemicals were found in the samples collected from farmers of Idukki and Kottayam districts. In the 73 samples collected from Thiruvananthapuram district, pesticide residue toxins were found only in 10 of them. Among them, only two samples violated the 'safe to eat' standards. Pesticide residue was found in ladiesfinger, beans, cucumber, red spinach and bitter gourd. The samples contained pesticides Chlorpyrifos, Fenvalerate, Lambda-cyhalothrin and Quinalphos.The university will advice the farmers regarding changes to be made in the use of pesticides.

Testing of vegetable samples for farmers is free and giving certification, as part of this scheme, is going on. If the farmers take one kilo sample each of the vegetables to be examined in a bag (other than plastic) and take it to the pesticide residue examination laboratory at the agricultural college at Vellayani, it will be examined free of cost and report given, Principal investigator Dr Thomas Biju George informed.

Vegetable testing: 15 new posts to be created at food safety labs

Thiruvananthapuram: As part of controlling the flow of toxic vegetables and fruits to the state, 15 new posts for technical experts will be created in the analytical labs functioning under food and safety commissionerate . It has also been decided to make the appointments to the posts soon. Health minister VS Sivakumar informed that the posts of research officer, Junior research officer, technical assistant grade 1 and grade 2 have been created to improve the technical standards at the labs in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Pathanamthita and Kozhikode.

GCMSMS, the latest method to analyse the presence of pesticides in food items , will soon start functioning in the labs. It has also been decided to establish ISPMS facility to detect the presence of heavy metals at the labs in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode. 

Facilites to test fish, meat, oil, curry powders in a time-bound manner are being enabled in the labs. Facilites to analyse the presense of micro organisms which cause food poisoning will also be made available in the food safety labs in Kerala. An understanding has been reached between the food safety commissionerate and central food technological research institute at Mysore for strenghthening the food safety analytical labs in the state with the help of latest technology.

Along witht the transfer of technology, scientists of the institute will give expert training to food analysts at the laboratories in the state. The minister informed that the analytical labs in kerala are in the final stage of preparations for getting NABL accreditation .

Delhiites, street vendors at safe food walkathon

Hundreds of Delhiites stepped out of their homes early on Sunday for the cause of clean and hygienic food. Participating in the safe food walkathon, several street vendors too pledged for the cause.

The walkathon, titled “Surakshit Khadya Abhiyan”, was flagged off by Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain.

Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said, “With heightened consumer demand for safe and unadulterated food, food safety and hygienic practices are the need of the hour. There is also an increasing need to focus on safety of street food, enjoyed by all sections of society.”

The walkathon saw several parallel activities including street plays, a painting competition and a skit by the Jago Grahak Jago team. Children particularly seemed to enjoy the sessions in which they were trained on the proper way to wash hands. Several street food vendors shared their experiences as well. The participants included senior citizens, children and people from all walks of life.

“Access to safe food is a basic human right,” said Alka Kaul, the chairperson of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the Delhi State Council, which organised the event.

“Our goal should be to provide high-quality safe food every time and everywhere. We believe that in today’s complex and interdependent food supply chain. Food safety is a shared responsibility of the farmers, the food industry, regulators as well as consumers,” she added.

The CII has also formed a Surakshit Khadya Abhiyan Steering committee with members from National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI), Voluntary Organisation in Interest of Consumer Education (VOICE), Cargill and other industry representatives.

The walkathon will be followed by seven more safe food walkathons and more than 20 consumer advocacy programmes across the country in the next six months.

Government initiates ‘grow safe food’ campaign

Aims to create awareness on judicious and proper use of pesticides

The Government has taken several measures for proper use of pesticides by the farmers.

The Ministry of Agriculture has stated in a release that pesticide residue data generated under the “Monitoring of Pesticide Residues at National Level” are shared with State Governments and concerned ministries/organisations to initiate the corrective action for judicious and proper use of pesticides on crops with an integrated pest management approach and to generate awareness amongst farmers.

The Department of Agriculture, Co-Operation & Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW) emphasises integrated pest management (IPM) which promotes biological, cultural and mechanical methods of pest and advocates need based, judicious use of pesticides.

This follows an earlier report released by the Agriculture Ministry stating that the government had found residues of pesticides in a significant number of vegetables, fruits, milk and other food items collected from various retail and wholesale outlets across the country. Samples collected from organic outlets were also found having residues of pesticides.

Residues of unapproved pesticides were found in 12.5 per cent of the 20,618 samples collected nationally as part of the central scheme ‘Monitoring of Pesticide Residues’, which was launched in 2005.

The samples collected during 2014-15 have been analysed by 25 laboratories.