Consumers should be aware about food adulteration

Adulterated fruits and vegetables are ubiquitous. Adulteration of food has assumed an ‘alarming proportion’ in our country. From milk to drinking water and fruits to edible oils and even meat are being adulterated. It goes on unabated and the incidence of incurable diseases like cancer becomes higher with time. This is a matter of grave concern because it directly pertains to public health, which cannot be compromised. Adulteration of food consists of substituting it wholly or in part by any inferior or cheaper substance or removing any sort of its constituents wholly or in part which affect adversely the nature or quality of the product.
Besides a ban, manufacturers should be punished for deceiving the public and violating food safety laws. Although the government has enacted several laws to curb food adulteration, they are far from properly enforced. Not least due to lack of trained manpower, and endemic corruption. As a consequence, public health is at the ‘mercy of the profiteers and adulterators’ poisoning our food.
With all this understanding and information known to authorities who can help in reducing the problem, are ‘nowhere in the picture’ to solve it. There is no mechanism to monitor such unscrupulous activities and punish the guilty who are posing a grave threat to our health. According to the provisions of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, if any person imports or manufactures for sale, or stores or distribute any adulterant, by himself or by any other person on his behalf, shall be liable for a penalty up to rupees two lakhs, if the adulterant is not injurious to health. Rupees ten lakhs penalty can be imposed upon him if the adulterant is injurious to health. However, adulterators are not scared of any legal or punitive action due to the various loopholes prevailing in the existing laws. The lives of the people are endangered and simple fines and small imprisonments are not enough to deter adulteration. There should be provision for stringent punishments like confiscation of property, life imprisonment etc. So long exemplary punishments are not given, this menace cannot be stopped.
An empowered force of trained food safety personnel should visit eateries, food stores, even festival venues where food is served, and take action where adulteration or contamination is detected through scientific means.
‘Consumer Awareness’ is the first step to eradicate food adulteration. People should start suing the shop owners who sell tainted food. And law should be impartial. Prevailing laws are stringent enough to work as a deterrent against those indulging in food adulteration but much more needs to be done to implement them in the right spirit. Consumers have to be aware of their rights, and non-profit organizations should play an active role in this regard. To make the nation healthy, every citizen must be able to buy food that is free from contamination.

Wrapping food in newspaper a health hazard: regulator

India’s food regulator has issued an advisory stating that the use of newspapers for wrapping and packing of food items, a common practice by street vendors, poses a health hazard.
The regulator on Wednesday expressed concern over “Indians being slowly poisoned” by cancer-causing agents in newspaper ink.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) restricted the use of newspapers and packaging material saying that consumption of food wrapped in newspapers was “injurious to health, even if the food had been cooked hygienically. Indians are being slowly poisoned due to newspapers being widely used as food packaging material by small hotels, vendors and also in homes in lieu of absorbent paper.”
‘Harmful pigments’
The food regulator said the chemicals in newspaper ink contain harmful colours, pigments, additives and preservatives. “Besides chemical contaminants, presence of pathogenic micro-organisms in used newspaper poses potential risk to human health. Older people, children and people with compromised vital organs and immune systems are at a greater risk of acquiring cancer-related health complications if they are exposed to food packed in such material,” said FSSAI in a press statement.
The FSSAI has stated that there is an urgent need to discourage the use of newspaper as food packaging material by creating awareness among businesses, especially unorganised food business operators, about the harmful effects. The regulator has instructed the commissioners of food safety across the country to initiate an awareness campaign to this effect.

Eating food wrapped in newspapers can invite cancer :FSSAI

New Delhi: Do you eat bhel or chat from a roadside hawkers who serve it in a cone made of newspapers? Do you buy foods packed in cardboard boxes? Well, you might be putting yourselves at a greater risk of acquiring cancer-related health complications. To discourage such practice, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) in its latest advisory has asked the commissioners of food safety of all states to generate awareness amongst the stakeholders.

According to the food authority, consumption of food wrapped in newspaper is dangerous since the ink contains multiple bioactive materials with known negative effects. “Indian are being slowly poisoned due to newspaper being widely used as food packaging material by small hotels, vendors and also in homes in lieu of absorbent paper,” reads the advisory. Importantly, the printing ink also contains harmful colours, pigments, binders, additives and preservatives, which pose potential risk to human health.

The FSSAI has also cautioned the usage of cardboard boxes made of recycled paper, which may be contaminated with metallic contaminants, mineral oils and harmful chemicals like “phthalates”, as it can cause digestive problems and also lead to severe toxicity,” it further said. Significantly, it added, “extra warning” for older people, teenagers, children and people with compromised vital organs and immune systems as according to FSSAI they are at greater risk of acquiring cancer related health complication, if they are exposed to food packaged in such material.

While the offenders do not face any penalty so far, the advisory calls for an urgent need to discourage the use of newspaper being widely used as food packaging. “Newspapers should not be used to wrap, cover, serve food or to absorb excess oil from fried food. There is an urgent need to discourage the use of newspaper as food packaging material by creating awareness among businesses especially unorganised food business operators and consumers on its harmful effects. Suitable steps need to be taken to restrict and control its use,” added the advisory.

Henceforth, the FSSAI has asked its commissioners of food safety of all states to initiate systematic campaign for generating awareness to discourage the use of newspaper for packaging, serving and storing of food items.

Ban manufacture and sale of pan masala containing tobacco: Govt to states

NEW DELHI: The Union health ministry has asked states to enforce ban on manufacture as well as sale of pan masala containing nicotine or tobacco irrespective of whether it is available as one product or sold by mixing with other ingredients.

"I request you to please get the necessary orders passed in compliance of the Supreme Court direction/order dated 23.09.2016 and ensure that the manufacture, storage, distribution or sale of gutka and pan masala (containing tobacco or nicotine) and any other products marketed separately...

"...having tobacco or nicotine in the final product by whatever name called, whether packaged or un-packaged and/or sold as one product, or though packaged as separate products, sold or distributed in such a manner so as to easily facilitate mixing by the consumer is prohibited in your jurisdiction," Union Health secretary C K Mishra wrote in his letter to state governments.

He said that in this context that states such as Bihar, Karnataka, Mizoram, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh have already issued orders in compliance of the Supreme Court order.

In his letter, he noted that tobacco use is the foremost preventable cause of death and disease globally as well as in lndia and said that as per the Global Audit Tobacco Survey - lndia (GATS) 2010, smokeless tobacco or chewing forms are the most prevalent forms with 206 million lndians using it.

"As such the consequent burden of mortality and morbidity due to consumption of smokeless tobacco is very high in lndia. Available evidence suggests that lndia shares the maximum burden of oral cancer in the World," he wrote.

He said that in order to circumvent the ban on the sale of gutka, the manufacturers are selling pan masala (without tobacco) with flavoured chewing tobacco in separate sachets'.

Often these sachets are sold together by the same vendors from the same premises, so that consumers can buy the pan masala and flavoured chewing tobacco and mix them and consume the same.

Hence, instead of the earlier "ready to consume mixes", chewing tobacco companies are selling gutka in twin packs to be mixed as one, he said.

The Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has issued the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on sales) Regulations, 2011 in exercise of power conferred under the Food Safety and standards Act, 2006.

According to its regulation, tobacco and nicotine shall not be used as ingredients in any food products and it bans sale of all food products where tobacco is present as ingredient in the final product, whether going by the name of gutka, pan masala or zarda.