DINAMALAR NEWS

Worms found in burgers from two Kentucky McDonald’s restaurants

At least two people have reported finding worms in food from McDonald’s restaurants in two Kentucky communities.

Mayfield resident Madison Stephens tells WPSD-TV that she visited the local McDonald’s on Sunday and purchased food for her and her 1-year-old son. She says that as she was about to bite into her hamburger, a live worm fell out.

At the McDonald’s in Draffenville, about 25 miles away from Mayfield, Lacey Jo Lovett says she also found a worm in her burger on Tuesday.

Stephens says she contacted McDonald’s about the incident, and they sent her a $10 gift card.

McDonald’s spokesperson Michael Love says in a statement that the company is investigating and will “take all appropriate measures to resolve the matter”.

Order imposing Rs 3L penalty on oil trader set aside

Madurai: The Madurai bench of the Madras high court has set aside an order imposing Rs 3 lakh penalty against an oil trader in Tirunelveli district for want of complying with the mandated provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act by the food safety officer.

The adjudicating authority/ district revenue officer of Tirunelveli district on October 10, 2014 imposed the penalty against the trader R Chandramohan alleging that the trader supplied non-edible gingelly oil as edible oil and also that the analyst report revealed adulteration in it.

The trader, Chandramohan was engaged in selling Shanmugha gingelly oil. On March 19, 2013, food safety officer Vikramasingapuram collected samples of four packets manufactured by Chandramohan, from a shop in the locality and subjected them to analysis. Based on a report, the penalty was imposed.

Challenging it, the trader filed a petition before the high court bench. The petitioner's side told the court that the food safety officer failed to issue notice to the petitioner before collecting the samples or sending the same to the test. Had the officer given notice to the petitioner, he would have sought second test to the sample. Besides, the petitioner printed a label on the packet saying that the oil was non-edible. When an item is a non-edible, the same would not come under the purview of the Food Safety and Standards Act, the petitioner's side said.

The government told that the employee and the owner of the shop admitted that even though it was printed on the packet as non-edible oil, it was sold as edible oil.

After hearing, the court said, "Thus, the court is of the view that a valuable right of the petitioner has been deprived to send the samples for a second examination. The court also holds that the food safety officer did not adhere to the procedures contemplated under the Act and the rules while initiating action against the petitioner and two others. There are lot of deficiencies in the prosecution launched by the food safety officer," the court said.

Ordering food from iconic resturants is now just a click away!

BENGALURU: Be it your favourite steaming hot idlis from Veena Stores or Masala Dosa from Vidyarthi Bhavan, Bisibelebath from Adigas. You can now enjoy the food from Bengaluru's iconic restaurants at the comfort of your house or office. No traffic hassle, no waiting in the queues, the mouth watering delicacies will land at your door step. However, make sure that the restaurant you are ordering from is within 4.5 km radius of your location.The service is on for the last two months.

City's iconic restaurants like Maiyas, Shri Sagar CTR, Veena Stores, Anand Sweets, Vasudev Adigas, Vidyarthi Bhavan, Halimane, Empire and A2B among many others have linked up with mobile app 'goodbox'. The app is configured in such a way that the user will informed about the service delivery area. Area upto 4.5 km distance from the location of the restaurant will be covered. If the user is located beyond the service delivery.Q It takes about 45 minutes to reach out to the customer," said Abey Zachariah, CEO, Co-founder of goodbox. The company has tied up with third party delivery services for home delivery.

All that one needs to do is to download goodbox app on your smart phone, chat, order, pay online and receive the food on your doorstep from your favourite restaurant.

'goodbox' is a channel of communication for commerce between businesses and consumers that links up to as many as 4000 business.

It's a whatsapp like messaging platform to buy and pay online. These businesses may range from grocery shops, laundries, restaurants, outstation cabs, home bakers, Harley renters, hourly drivers and so on. So, basically good box provides many local and city based services in one app, making the life of a consumer easy.

Ghee maker held on charge of adulteration

The accused confessed that he has supplied the adulterated ghee to small grocery stores in various parts in the city at lesser prices.

The officials of Food and Safety Wing of GVMC with the support of City Task Force Police on Saturday raided a house where one person was manufacturing adulterated ghee at Muralinagar area in the city, and seized about 1,500 kgs of adulterated ghee. The police also arrested T. Sanyasi Rao, the owner of the small scale industry and investigation is on to nab a few others.

Acting on a tip-off, the team led by Food Safety Inspector G.V. Appa Rao along with the CTF raided the unit and they also recovered boilers, vanaspati and palm oil sachets and sealed the premises.

The GVMC officials said that Sanyasi Rao has been preparing the spurious ghee with vanaspati and palm oil by adding around 30 to 40 per cent pure ghee of a popular brand for past six months.

The accused confessed that he has supplied the adulterated ghee to small grocery stores in various parts in the city at lesser prices.

“We will send the samples to the laboratory and a case has been registered against Sanyasi Rao under Food Safety and Standard Act,” said the Food Safety Officer.

The police and GVMC officials have appealed to the public to pass any information to police about food adulteration.

Some drinking water units fake the public out

Officials of the State unit of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) have been detecting fake ISI labels on some.

Even the assurance of an ISI logo on packaged drinking water can no longer be taken for granted. Officials of the State unit of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) have been detecting fake ISI labels on some.

These fakes were seized during a raid conducted by the officials two days ago in Palakkad district. Similar instances had come to light in raids in Alappuzha earlier.

Misuse of ISI mark is an offence punishable with one-year simple imprisonment or fine up to Rs.50,000, or both, as per the BIS Act, 1986. The 30-year-old and relatively mild punishment codified in the Act could be no big deterrent, say officials, urging a scaling up of the fine to at least Rs.2 lakh and a more severe incarceration clause. The new rules are understood to be in a draft stage now.

State BIS chief Kadirvel told The Hindu that packaged drinking water, filled in 20-litre jars bearing spurious ISI mark, was found at a unit at Kannadi in Palakkad. The product was being sold under brand names such as ‘Aqua Varshah’, ‘Surabhi Aqua’, ‘Gogul Dew’, ‘Pure.O’, ‘Holy Aqua’, and ‘Suraksha H2O’. The manufacturing unit consisted of just a shed, where workers filled the jars with water drawn from a tank nearby, he said.

“The unit did not have a BIS licence, which is mandatory as per the FSSAI Act, 2006. Every unit manufacturing drinking water is required to have facilities such as Reverse Osmosis and ultraviolet (UV) filtration to ensure quality. The manufacturing facility should be certified by BIS and the product must conform to quality standards as per quality norms set by it.”

Food material seized from manufacturing units are to be tested at government-approved laboratories, since the BIS has no laboratory of its own in Kerala. The Kochi-based BIS office has to depend on the food testing laboratory of the Cashew Export Promotion Council at Kottayam or a few other select laboratories approved by the government.

While BIS officials can take action against those using the fake ISI mark, it is for the FSSAI officials to find out whether drinking water units are functioning with valid permits. Consumers could verify the genuineness of names and addresses of BIS certified products from the website www.bis.org.in, the official said