Food Safety Goes For a Toss as Staff Crunch Hits Testing Lab

VISAKHAPATNAM: In what appers to be the lax attitude of the authorities, the traders and middlemen adulterate all food items, including water, milk, edible oils, pulses, ghee, honey and sell them in the market.

As the violators go scot-free, several hotels, restaurants and roadside vendors serve unhygienic food.

Though there is a full-fledged Regional Public Health Laboratory (RPHL) in Visakhapatnam, no single food or water sample is tested. Since the state government did not pass orders to the food inspectors to send the samples to the Visakhapatnam RPHL, the food and safety officials continue to send the samples to Hyderabad.

With over 22 lakh population in the city, at least 10 food inspectors should check for adulteration. The government without recruiting the inspectors, has deployed three sanitary inspectors to the Food and Safety department. With no inspecting staff, the Food and Safety wing collects samples of food items and pulses and sends them to Hyderabad for testing.

There are many complaints on the adulteration of food and other edibles and unhygienic food being served in the city, but there is no check on the violators. The wholesalers of various food items like edible oils, ghee, pulses and others purchase in bulk from Rajahmundry, Amalapuram, Palakole and Vijayawada and locally adulterate them.

According to the food and safety norms, the hotels, confectionaries and other vendors selling food items should maintain quality norms. However, as the department was not strengthened, many people have been hospitalised after consuming adulterated food items.

The Visakhapatnam RPHL has three wings to test water, food and diagnosis. However, as the government is not directing the food and safety inspectors to send the samples to the locally set up RPHL, for the past one and a half decades the samples are being sent to the Hyderabad RPHL. At present, the Visakhapatnam RPHL is testing the food items like wheat, sugar and imported and exported items from the Krishnapatnam, Kakinada and Visakhapatnam ports, ignoring the public health. The Vizag RPHL has two senior scientific officers and food analysts, two scientific officers, one junior scientific officer, junior assistant, lab attendant and one lab technician, but the officials are not testing the food items and rendering their services to the importers and exporters to check the quality of their foodgrains.

Adulteration causes serious risk to health and the presence of harmful chemicals in food items and unhygienic conditions lead to acute gastritis and kidney inflammation. Giving the highest priority to the public health, the government should establish an advanced food testing laboratory with modern equipment.

However, the health department did not even issue notification to send the samples to Visakhapatnam lab instead of sending them to Hyderabad, a food inspector lamented. Even after bifurcation, the Health department did not issue any notification, he added.

Assistant food controller B Hanumantha Rao said that after repeated requests to the government, three food inspectors had been deployed to the department.

At least 10 food inspectors, infrastructure and vehicles should be allocated to the department. Due to lack of staff, the department has been facing troubles, he added.

15 eateries served notices in city for using unsafe colour

Criminal cases will be filed, says Assistant Food Controller

As many as 15 restaurants and eateries in the city have been recently served notices for using prohibited and unsafe food colour in various dishes.

The eateries, found lacing food with dyes to trigger appetite of food buffs, include city’s leading restaurants as well as those belonging to food chains based out of Hyderabad. Incidentally all the eateries that were started recently were also found using food colours. It may be recalled that on February 23, 11 teams of food safety department led by joint commissioner K.N. Swaroop raided eateries in Moghalrajpuram and at Pandit Nehru Bus Station. Samples of both non-vegetarian and vegetarian items were then lifted.

Analyses of the samples at the State Food Laboratory proved that most of them used unsafe food colour in items served at restaurants and substandard colours were used in confectioneries and bakery products.

"The analysis reports had arrived and based on that we served notices on all the eateries. Their response is awaited,” Assistant Food Controller (zone II) R Nageswaraiah told The Hindu.

Over 1 PPM colour used

“Majority of them were found using unsafe food colour, which is much more than the permissible 1 PPM (part per million or 1 gram per 100 kg of food) in all non-vegetarian items and some vegetarian items. Usage of food colour in items served at any restaurant is prohibited and 1PPM of colour can be used in cakes and sweets”, he added.

Mr. Nageswaraiah said that criminal cases will be filed against eateries using unsafe colours, and those using substandard colours. In both the cases fines will be imposed and court may award jail term too for those entities responsible.

Govt’s U-turn on use of MSG in noodles on ground of naturally found ingredient

FSSAI directed Commissioners of Food Safety not to act against manufactures of noodles on account of presence of MSG unless it is found that MSG was deliberately added during the course of manufacturing.

Indore : Taking a ‘U-Turn’ over action on use of Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) in various food products, especially as the flavour enhancer in seasoning for noodles and pastas, the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) has released its clarification as MSG is naturally found in various food products and it can be added to Good Manufacturing Practice Level along with proper declaration.

The FSSAI had taken action against various noodle brands on finding MSG and lead in the laboratory test.

Now, the FSSAI has clarified that the Glutamate is naturally found in various common foods like milk, spices, wheat, vegetables, etc and there is no analytical method to determine whether MSG was added to the product during the manufacturing of food product or was naturally present in the product. This can be checked only through inspection of the manufacturing units.

According to sources in the Food and Drug Administration Department, the department had taken action over various noodle brands on finding glutamate as ingredient but after learning the fact, the authority released the clarification with an aim to relax food business operators.

For balancing their clarification, the FSSAI has stated that to prevent both, avoidable harassment/ prosecution of Food Business Operators as well as to ensure that consumers are facilitated to exercise informed choices in respect of what they eat, proceedings may be launched against FBOs only when the labels state ‘No MSG’ or ‘No added MSG’ and MSG is the impugned foodstuff.

The Food Safety Authority has also directed the commissioners of food safety for not taking action against manufacturers of noodles/pasta on account of presence of MSG/Glutamic Acid unless it is ascertained by the department that MSG flavor enhancer was deliberately added during the course of manufacturing without required declaration on the labels.

However, the Food Safety Officers find the orders confusing as no proper GMP has been set by them and how the officers would decide in taking action against the food products containing MSG.

Khyber Stores, supplies will be withdrawn

Enforcement agencies misuse FSSAI, abuse powers: CCFPK

‘Rather than yellow journalism, media should pave way for investigative journalism’

Coordination Committee of Food Processors of Kashmir (CCFPK) has accused enforcement agencies of misusing Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) law and abusing their discretionary powers against Valley’s food processors. They also accused media of resorting to yellow journalism.

According to a statement, the Valley’s leading food processors held an extraordinary meeting on April 7, 2016 and deliberated upon the recent development vis-a-vis food processing industry in general and the milk processing sector in particular. The meeting also expressed concern over the section of print media dealing the matter in ‘casual manner’.

It said the delegates of the leading food processing units had a thorough assessment of the recent media reports and the court judgment whereby leading milk processing industry’s operation has been stopped.

It said representatives from leading food industry like hotel and restaurant owners, food processors, milk processors, spices industry, bakery association and packaged water industry who attended the meeting expressed great anguish over the indifferent behaviour by various enforcement agencies.

The food industry said a common Food Business Operator (FBO) is in a state of distrust due to the misinterpretation and misuse of FSSAI law at large and the abuse of the discretionary powers by the enforcement agencies. “This is a matter of great concern for the whole food industry.”

The meeting observed food processors are at the receiving end due to the multiple interpretations of FSSAI norms by a section of media and observations by some ‘so-called’ experts.

“A deliberate attempt is being made just to label us as incapable and dishonest food business operators so as to render us as mere consumers than producers of the food stuff,” the statement said. 

It said the media needs to pave way for investigative journalism and discourage the scope for yellow journalism. 

The members in the meeting urged media know the other side of the story from the sufferers of the ill-conceived perceptions about food business operators.

Food processors said more than 5 lakh persons are employed, directly or indirectly with the food industry.

“Our contribution to the value addition of our local agricultural production is immense playing a major role in eradicating unemployment among rural educated unemployed youth,” it said. 

The food processors questioned a clean chit given to all suppliers and food business operators across the Jawahar Tunnel. 

“There can be no scope for double standards when FSSA provides same yardstick for each and every trader.”

During the meeting food processors demanded comprehensive measures for rectifying the damage done by some agencies and also to mobilize the public and media opinion by providing them the factual position based on truth and reality. 

The food processors said they would file an RTI in order to get first hand information about the lifting of samples proportionately throughout J&K. 

The food processors said they would fight in the court of law.

It said consorted efforts would be made to mobilize the opinion of civil society at large and media in particular though seminars, press conferences, one to one interactions and through social media etc in coordination with the FSSAI authorities.

The coordination committee said being a part and parcel of the society, the food unit holders are fully conscious of their social responsibilities and they owe an allegiance to the society.

Public Health: An arena ignored by both Government and People

Public Health: An arena ignored by both Government and People

As public focus is on Khyber Agro Farm Ltd’s alleged misdemeanours , what is either glossed over or ignored by both the authorities and the public at large is the , “ in your face” abusive market practices of various retailers in Kashmir. These abuses are so pervasive and inherent that the public has become inured to these. Be it the butcher who displays mutton exposed to dust and grime, or the poultry wallahs who care two hoots about hygiene in the poultry value chain, or the nadur monj wallah or the seek tuj wallah- all are implicated in bad and abusive practices. These have public health implications and connotations. But the sad irony is that no one cares- not the government; not the public. The question is why?

There are basically two reasons for this: one, the public does not appear to care. It is either blissfully unaware of the explicit dangers of these practices and abuse and the health implications that follow. Since the public is unaware, vendors , dealers and retailers neither feel the need nor pressure to indulge in more salutary and healthy practices. In the process, the government catches the bug too. Again , given that there is neither demand for action nor pressure, the authorities become lax and allow these unhealthy practices to continue under their very noses.

But there are public health issues involved here. We know that medical care is almost in a primitive state and stage in Kashmir. The operating assumption of medical practitioners and authorities is slanted towards diagnosis and that too of the superficial variety. In this schema, a patient is diagnosed with an illness, tests prescribed and then treatment given. But this is specious. What should be the focus and motto is: prevention is better than cure. This can be operationalized by making the public aware of bad and harmful dietary habits, and also raising awareness of healthy lifestyles. Here there is a critical role for the government. Its public health arm can and must take recourse to vigorous public health awareness campaigns to make the public aware of deleterious and harmful life styles and attendant themes. Once the public is aware, there can be a bottoms up demand for better market and retailing practices which in turn can generate pressure upon other departments to spur into action.

All in all then what is required is a holistic approach towards public health wherein the interests of all stakeholders- government, public and businesses- get aligned towards public good. Initially, an element of coercion may have to be employed to make businesses conform to public health guidelines till it becomes a habit. This may mean light sentences or fines. This approach may be needed to be complemented by incentives. The right mixture of carrots and sticks can lead to a paradigm where good, ethical and sound practices get instituted – all for the sake of public good and welfare. Given the ruckus over Khyber, the time for instituting this paradigm may be now.