Sep 21, 2016
FSS Amendment Regulations, 2016, related to food additives to come into force on or after July 1, 2017
FSS Amendment Regulations, 2016, related to food additives to come into force on or after July 1, 2017
New Delhi, Sep 20 (KNN) The Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Seventh Amendment Regulations, 2016, will come into force on or after July 1, 2017, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has said.
The amendment is related to harmonization of horizontal standards for food additive for use in certain food categories.
Making amendments in the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011, FSSAI said, “These regulations may be called the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Seventh Amendment Regulations, 2016.”
It said they shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette and compliance with provision of these regulations on or after July 1, 2017.
Certain amendments have been made in the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) regulations, 2011, in Chapter 3 relating to Substances Added to Food.
Some regulations related to Food Additives that have been substituted includes - The conditions under which food additives may be used in foods, whether or not they have previously been permitted by the Food Safety and Standards (Food Standards and Food Additives) regulations, 2011.
Changes have been made in food categories or individual food items in which the use of food additives is not allowed, or where use should be restricted, are defined by these Regulations.
Further amendments have been made in - Acceptable Daily Intake; Maximum Use Level of an additive; Justification for the use of Food Additives etc
Tests show tainted packaged water
PUNE: Vimannagar resident and activist Qaneez Sukhrani has alleged that her family and she have been affected by coliform contamination through packaged drinking water marketed by reputed brands.
Upon her request, the state Food and Drug Administration(FDA) is investigating the matter.
Sukhrani, the convener of Vimannagar Citizens Forum, said she had sent two bottles of drinking water - one bottle packaged by a multinational soft drink maker, and the other by an Indian company - to the state health services laboratory, after she noticed multiple members of her family falling ill.
"I felt something was wrong with the water. We drink only packaged drinking water as the common perception is that the water supplied by the civic authorities is not clean. So I sent the two samples to the State Public Health Services (SPHS) laboratory in Pune for tests in July," Sukhrani said. She added that she sent the samples to state-run labs for "authenticity".
The SPHS laboratory provided the test reports on July 26 after running them through a microbiological and a chemical test. While the chemical test gave the samples a clean bill of health, the biological report showed that in both the samples, coliform contamination was present at more than 16 units per 100ml of water, rendering the sample non-potable by medical standards.
Medical experts say that coliform ingestion by humans often causes gastroenteric infections and related diseases, normally preceded by vomiting, nausea, or stomach cramps.
Sukhrani added that she had approached the state Food and Drug Administration(FDA) for a more detailed investigation into the safety of packaged drinking water, saying that the larger public must be informed about the safety of the packaged water.
"The state government should take steps to shut down plants and companies that blatantly violate health and safety guidelines regarding drinking water, and ensure that they don't operate under names of other companies, so that unsuspecting people do not fall sick due to their products," she remarked.
The state FDA, which is investigating the issue, explained that they have concurred with the SPHS laboratory's findings after conducting their own tests of the samples provided.
"There is substantial coliform contamination which has been found in both the samples in the microbiological testing," said a senior FDA official.
As for further investigations, FDA officials say that the probe will proceed to the companies involved and may result in prosecution."We have now taken the investigation to the companies and independent samples have been collected from them. If our investigations reveals any negligence on the part of the companies, we will go forward with prosecution," said assistant commissioner of the FDA SP Shinde.
FSSAI proposes norms to hold e-tailers responsible for food quality
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has come up with a draft notification, putting the onus of quality of food products on e-commerce marketplaces that sell such products. The guidelines, released on Tuesday for public comments, include any online platform or e-commerce site of manufacturer involved in the food business in any form. The guidelines have been formed on the basis of discussions that the regulator had with the food business operators (FBO) on March 18.
Under the guidelines, any e-commerce FBO that sells, distributes, delivers, imports, stores, packages or manufactures food items would "have to obtain licence from the central licensing authority for the entire supply chain, including its head office, registered office, transportation, storage, distribution".
E-commerce entities providing only listing facility for sellers, restaurant owners, distributors, vendors, distributors and manufacturers would not have to obtain licences or registration under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (FSS Act). They have to ensure that no misleading information or false claims about or by the sellers, vendors, importers, manufacturers or the food products are made on their platform. "The e-commerce companies shall clearly specify on their platform that liability of any violation of the FSS Act and applicable rules and regulations made thereunder would be with sellers, restaurants, vendors, importers or manufacturers of the food products," said the notification. In line with the FSS Act, e-commercefirms would have to ensure the safety of food articles sold on their platform. Online firms would also have to get into legal agreement with sellers complying with the FSS Act.
The food regulator has been working to regulate the e-commerce companies for the past few months. However, lack of enough precedence at the global level had delayed the process, its chief executive officer Pawan Kumar Agarwal said last month. While most of the major e-commercefirms dealing with food items have already obtained licences, a set of guidelines to regulate their operations was required, Agarwal added.
Currently, there are around 20 e-commerce firms that focus on selling food items. These include Big Basket, Swiggy and Grofers. E-commerce giants such as Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal, too, offer food items on their platforms.
The guidelines also specify the requirements for display and listing. Apart from providing pictorial display of the food products, sellers would have to ensure their licence or registration obtained fromFSSAI is viewable to the consumers. Like offline retailers, products sold by online sellers would also be "liable to sampling at any point of the supply chain". The firms are restrained from charging any extra money to its consumers seeking any information such as storage conditions, disclaimers and warnings about the food products.
According to the draft guidelines, any consumer complaint has to be intimated to the sellers immediately by the e-commerce firm and aggrieved customers would have to be directed to the consumer complaint cell of the manufacturer. "The e-commerce FBO will cooperate with the consumers to enable satisfactory resolution of the complaint by sharing with him all relevant information including seller details," the notification added.
In case of any product recall, the online platform provider would have to comply with FSSAI's rules by immediately de-listing the product in question.
E-commerce food firms to come under FSSAI regime
The regulation, if confirmed, will require online food delivery companies like Swiggy, Zomato and Foodpanda to procure licences from FSSAI
New Delhi: Any e-commerce company selling food products, or dealing in the food business, will need licences from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), if the draft guidelines notified on Tuesday are confirmed.
“E-commerce FBOs (food business operators) will have to obtain licence from the Central Licensing Authority for the entire supply chain, i.e. head office/registered office, transportation, storage, distribution, etc,” the food safety regulator said on Tuesday.
The regulation, if confirmed, will require online food delivery companies like Swiggy, Zomato and Foodpanda to procure licences from FSSAI. Swiggy, Zomato and Foodpanda did not immediately respond to Mint’s requests for comment on the proposed regulation.
E-commerce entities providing listing or directory services to sellers, restaurants, vendors, importers or manufacturers of food products may not be required to obtain licences.
FSSAI has sought comments and suggestions on the draft guidelines from companies operating in the sector. Final regulations will be notified after FSSAI studies the feedback. The draft guidelines notified on Tuesday are based on a discussion that the regulator held on 18 March.
According to the draft guidelines, all companies in the entire supply chain will have to comply with the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 to ensure food safety, and all sellers selling food products through online marketplaces will need licences from FSSAI. The regulator also detailed guidelines on consumer complaint redressal and product recalls.
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