Jan 4, 2016

Patanjali noodles case: FSSAI studying reply to show-cause notice

"We have received reply from Patanjali to our show-cause notice. We are studying that and the case is in process," FSSAI Chairperson Ashish Bahuguna was quoted as saying.
Food regulator FSSAI reportedly said it will take a final call on Patanjali noodles case after studying the company's reply to its notice.
"We have received reply from Patanjali to our show-cause notice. We are studying that and the case is in process," FSSAI Chairperson Ashish Bahuguna was quoted as saying.
FSSAI reported that the case is neither delayed nor expedited because it belongs to Patanjali.
In November 2015, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had issued a notice to Patanjali Ayurved and Akash Yog Health Products.

FIR against Snapdeal for selling Maggi noodles during ban period

A case was registered on Sunday against CEO of Snapdeal Kunal Bahl and its founder Rohit Bansal for online sale of Nestle's instant noodles in five states.
An FIR has been registered against the CEO and founder of an e-commerce major for allegedly selling popular Maggi noodles online during the ban period, in five Indian states.
A case was registered on Sunday against CEO of Snapdeal Kunal Bahl and its founder Rohit Bansal for online sale of Nestle's instant noodles in five states including Rajasthan during the period of ban between June 7 and October 30 last year, police said on Monday.
A complaint was on Sunday lodged by Lalit Sharma, a Jaipur-based lawyer following which police registered an FIR under sections 420 (cheating), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 272 (adulteration of food or drink intended for sale), 273 (sale of noxious food or drink) of the IPC and sections 59 and 63 of the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006.
When contacted, the company spokesperson said they have not received any information on the same.
Last June, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India had placed a ban on sale of Maggi after they found high levels of lead in it.
The Bombay High Court, however, had revoked the ban on Maggi on October 19 paving the way for it to be back on shelves.

Products with ‘safe’ ingredients may not need food regulator’s approval

TheFSSAI is preparing new rules for product approvals after an earlier advisory, which put it at loggerheads with the food processing industry.
NEW DELHI: India's food regulator may do away with product approvals if the ingredients used have already been cleared or are deemed safe, bringing relief to the food processing industry by introducing a globally accepted norm.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India is preparing new rules for product approvals after an earlier advisory, which put it at loggerheads with the industry, was quashed by the Supreme Court for not having legal standing.
"We are in the process of formulating regulations for product approval process. We thought we could take this opportunity to review the procedure rather than just convert the advisory into regulation," said a senior officer of the authority who is aware of the development.
The food processing industry had alleged that the product approval system had paved the way for an "inspector raj" and it also drew flak from food processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who criticised the effects of regulatory overreach after the FSSAI imposed a nationwide ban on Nestle's popular instant noodle brand, Maggi, in June.
The FSSAI's proposed regulation may require product approval only if a new ingredient or additive is introduced, a practice followed in several developed nations. The regulator has uploaded a list of permitted food additives and food items in which they can be used and the recommended maximum level.
The product approval process was brought in through a May 2013 advisory, which had been challenged by the Maharashtra-based Vital Nutraceuticals and the Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association and deemed illegal by the Bombay High Court. The authority appealed in the Supreme Court, which questioned the legal standing of the process as it was an advisory rather than a regulation.
While the FSSAI discontinued the process after the court's ruling, it uploaded a circular on its website on August 26, which said the product approval process will be brought back as regulation. "Every endeavour will be made to expedite the regulations governing section 22 products," the circular said. The food processing industry feared the procedure outlined in the May 2013 advisory would be enacted as regulations.
The government recently appointed senior IAS officer Pawan Kumar Agarwal as the chief executive officer of the FSSAI in place of Yudhvir Singh Malik, who was behind the ban on Maggi.

Crackdown on unlicensed sale of junk food


Sale of crushed ice delicacies to be prevented in Kozhikode Corporation limits
Sale of crushed ice delicacies and drinks on the wayside and at beach tourism destinations in the city will be curbed as part of the strengthened vigil to ward off food-borne illnesses and communicable diseases.
Health Department squads within the City Corporation limit, municipalities and grama panchayats have been asked to keep a tab on unlicensed sale of junk food, especially cool drinks prepared with crushed ice. Sale of marinated fruits too will be monitored as part of the improved vigil.
The department has prepared the strict action plan after noticing the unhealthy practice on the part of a few vendors who use impure ice bars for the preparation of cool drinks, juices and marinated items. In flash searches conducted recently, the squads had also seized such unhealthy food items from the city and its suburbs.
Also, the sale of ice creams in unhygienic carts by unlicensed vendors too would be prevented taking into account concerns about children’s health.
Already, some schools and parents- teachers organisations have alerted their students against consumption of such food items citing health reasons.
The Health Department officials have also made it clear that the hygiene rules would be applicable to soft-drink and juice shops in the city and rural areas. “Surprise inspections would be carried out in all parts of the city to check the strict implementation of the quality parameters prescribed under Section 30 (d) of the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), 2006,” they said.
As per rules, fruits and other additives used to prepare juice or any other drinks should be bought only from traders with FSSA licence and the purchase bills should be kept for future verification purposes. The guidelines also stipulate that water used for preparation of juice, etc., should be from a properly tested source of impeccable quality.
However, officials attest that wayside juice sellers have been found to be violating many of these provisions for quick profit with minimal investment.
“Taking into account public safety, we will initiate stringent action against such unhygienic sales in the sector,” they said.

Patanjali noodles case neither delayed nor expedited: FSSAI

"We have received reply from Patanjali to our show-cause notice. We are studying that and the case is in process," FSSAI Chairperson told reporters.
Ruling out any special consideration being given to the Patanjali noodles case, food regulator FSSAI has said it will take a final call after studying the company’s reply to its notice.
“We have received reply from Patanjali to our show-cause notice. We are studying that and the case is in process,” FSSAI Chairperson Ashish Bahuguna told reporters.
“The case is neither delayed nor expedited because it belongs to Patanjali,” he said. In November 2015, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had issued a notice to Patanjali Ayurved and Akash Yog Health Products for allegedly violating provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, and manufacturing, re-labeling and marketing Patanjali atta noodles without valid approval.
Patanjali Ayurved, the FMCG venture promoted by yoga guru Ramdev, has launched 70-gram pack atta noodles priced at Rs 15, claiming it to be cheaper than other competitors, with an eye to take on market leader Nestle’s Maggi, which is back in shelves five months after FSSAI had banned it.
Patanjali had earlier strongly denied FSSAI’s claims and insisted that it had licence for pasta, under which noodles fall as per the regulator’s classification. The company further said FSSAI has already admitted that it’s no longer possible for the regulator to continue with the process of product approvals, which was facilitated through an advisory in May 2013.
This followed a Supreme Court order in August this year that upheld an order of the Bombay High Court on the issue. In June last year, FSSAI had banned Nestle’s instant noodles Maggi. This was later lifted by the high court, which ruled that the product needs to be tested at three government-approved laboratories. A clean chit from these labs led to the relaunch of the noodles in November.

No nonsense, no compromise

There are papers to read, meetings to attend. On a typical day at the office, T.V. Anupama’s door opens and shuts scores of times. The office, tucked into a corner of Thycaud, in Thiruvananthapuram, could do a lot of rework. But then that’s just one of the offices she goes to — the Food Safety Commissioner’s which Anupama joined one-and-a-half years ago.
She has also been made the Additional Director (General), Tourism and Managing Director, Inframed. But since she joined the service in 2010, no year has brought her the kind of attention this last one did. The year 2015 in one word has been ‘eventful’ for the young IAS officer who fell from one controversy to another — from restricting pesticide-infected vegetables from Tamil Nadu to the ban of certain packaged products. She speaks of the year that went by.
“The Food Safety Department came into existence only in 2011. So, the initial two years went into setting up the department. Even when I came in, the situation was that. For established departments, there is precedence for everything and you just have to follow it. If there is a specific issue, you need special intervention. In the case of food safety, there was a total lack of resources. No proper office, no sufficient human resources, no enough vehicles. So there was the setting up of the department going hand in hand with the work enforcement and analysis,” she says.
“Many things happen on a day-to-day basis but there’s no ready solution because we haven’t done it before. We know harmful pesticides and all are used. But how do we go about it? People have vegetables on a daily basis. You can’t just ban it. We needed another kind of solution. Everyone was aware of the situation. We were only a part of it. We spoke about it, presented in the meetings about it but rest was done by the government or public. People started becoming so aware, we continued lifting samples (from check-posts and markets),” she explains.
“Then there was the banning of certain products. Only some got highlighted. There are certain kind of food items that under the act or by various medical reports we know is unsafe. You should treat them in one way. Then there are certain habitual offenders you treat a different way,” Anupama says. However, she is not pleased with the publicity she got. “I haven’t been comfortable with the kind of attention all this brought. I don’t use my personal FB page much. No Twitter and no verified official page. But at some point, you have to open up. It is mandatory that we put all orders on public platform. Whenever some adulteration comes we put on the website. I didn’t expect this kind of response. The worst situation is when your privacy is encroached. Family was dragged into it. Luckily they were very supportive. Most of the staff were too, and there was public support,” Anupama says.

No special consideration given to Patanjali noodles case: FSSAI

Ruling out any special consideration being given to the Patanjali noodles case, food regulator FSSAI has said it will take a final call after studying the company's reply to its notice.
Ruling out any special consideration being given to the Patanjali noodles case, food regulator FSSAI has said it will take a final call after studying the company's reply to its notice.
"We have received a reply from Patanjali to our show-cause notice. We are studying that and the case is in process," FSSAI Chairperson Ashish Bahuguna told PTI.
"The case is neither delayed nor expedited because it belongs to Patanjali," he said.
In November 2015, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had issued a notice to Patanjali Ayurved and Akash Yog Health Products for allegedly violating provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, and manufacturing, re-labeling and marketing Patanjali atta noodles without valid approval.
Patanjali Ayurved, the FMCG venture promoted by yoga guru Ramdev, has launched 70-gram pack atta noodles priced at Rs 15, claiming it to be cheaper than other competitors, with an eye to take on market leader Nestle's Maggi, which is back in shelves five months after FSSAI had banned it.
Patanjali had earlier strongly denied FSSAI's claims and insisted that it had licence for pasta, under which noodles fall as per the regulator's classification.
The company further said FSSAI has already admitted that it's no longer possible for the regulator to continue with the process of product approvals, which was facilitated through an advisory in May 2013.
This followed a Supreme Court order in August this year that upheld an order of the Bombay High Court on the issue.
In June last year, FSSAI had banned Nestle's instant noodles Maggi. This was later lifted by the high court, which ruled that the product needs to be tested at three government-approved laboratories. A clean chit from these labs led to the relaunch of the noodles in November.

State bans Calcium Carbide used to ripen fruits

Waking up to the reality of widespread use of Calcium Carbide (CaC2) to ripen fruits in Hyderabad and elsewhere, the State government has now made it mandatory for fruit vendors to give an undertaking that they won’t sell fruits ripened with the chemical.
The government has also given orders to malls, departmental stores, kiosks, fruit stalls to clearly display posters declaring ‘Use of Calcium Carbide for ripening of fruits in injurious to health’ on their premises.
The State government has urged municipal bodies and officials from Commissioner of Food Safety to engage traders and other stake holders on effectively prohibiting the sale and use of Calcium Carbide.
The Food Safety (Prohibition and Restriction in Sale) Regulations 2011 bans persons from selling fruits ripened by acetylene gas or Calcium Carbide.
From now on, vendors have to provide assurance to regulatory authorities that the fruits sold from their stalls are not ripened artificially by using CaC2.
‘Conduct frequent checks’
The State government has directed the Institute of Preventive Medicine and Commissioner of Food Safety to conduct frequent and surprise inspections of commercial establishments selling fruits to ensure implementation of Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), 2006, which bans use of Calcium Carbide.

After insects in Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Atta noodles, fungus found in Patanjali’s Desi Ghee

Samples were collected from Haridwar and have been sent for testing.
2015 has not been a good year for Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurveda. Locals in Haridwar have reported about a the presence of fungus in the bottle of Patanjali’s Cow Milk’s Desi Ghee. Food Safety officials collected the sample on Monday and have sent them to a lab in Rudrapur for further testing.
According to the reports, samples were collected from Bhadrabad Phase II after many people reported the presence of impurities and fungus in the samples and test reports are expected in a fortnight.
It has also been reported that Baba Ramdev’s aide, Balakrishna has completely rejected the allegations stating that the ghee is heated to an optimum temperature and hence the allegation of fungus in a sealed bottle is baseless.
A few months ago, questions were raised about the quality and safety of Patanjali Atta Noodles as the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) declared that Patanjali had not received an approval from them before launching their atta noodles. Samples have been sent for testing but the reports are still awaited.
After that, a man in Haryana complained that he had found insects in a packet of Patanjali’s Atta noodles. The packet was purchased from some swadeshi store in Narwana and the shopkeeper too had admitted that the packet was purchased from his outlet. The man had then decided to file a litigation against Patanjali. But, like most other news, there’s no information on whether the litigation was actually filed and what Patanjali had to say in this case.