Packaged drinking watersale to be streamlined

NO OTHER GO: Waters cans are sold for for Rs.35 to Rs.40 at shops in Thoothukudi.

Collector takes steps to prevent fleecing by water companies

Collector M. Ravikumar has appealed to packaged drinking water companies to bring down the price of canned water.

Speaking to media persons here on Monday, he said that during a recent meeting with the members of packaged drinking water companies association, the proprietors were instructed to sell a can of 20 litres for Rs.20. But they wanted the price to be fixed at Rs.25. The revised price would be notified in the media within a week.

If the price was not brought down soon, the district administration would sell water cans for Rs.15 each through cooperative stores, he said and expressed concern over shopkeepers fleecing the public by selling a can for Rs.35 to Rs.40.

Only nine packaged water companies had received licence and approvals from all the departments of Groundwater, Food Safety and Pollution Control Board. Fifteen other companies had two licences. It was mandatory for all packaged drinking water companies to get all licences and approvals, the Collector said.

Officials concerned should check the quality of packaged water and also whether groundwater was tapped illegally. The functioning of the packaged drinking water companies would be streamlined and new regulations framed within this month, Mr. Ravikumar said.

He said 78 illegal borewells were sealed. A sealed borewell at Deivaseyalpuram, which resumed operations, was sealed again, Mr. Ravikumar added.

Action against misleading advertisements

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has upheld complaints about 100 misleading advertisements related to healthcare, personal care, education, food and beverages and E commerce.

The ads in healthcare category included: Dr. Batra’s Homeopathy Family Clinic, which claimed to have cured over 10 lakh patients in 142 cities for hair fall, skin and other disorders. It also offered cure for sexual problems which was in violation of the Drugs & Magic Remedies Act. Similarly “ Nova Pulse IVF Clinic Private Limited” claimed to have carried out over 10,000 IVF pregnancies. The claim was unsubstantiated. Similarly the catch line of the “Richfeel Health & Beauty Pvt. Ltd”’s ad offered better hair growth just for Re.1with a visual of 1 rupee coin. However the body copy of the ad states the treatment costs as Rs. 60,000/-.

Under personal care category the Hindustan Unilever’s ads “The new Lakme Youth Infinity range keeps the contoured look of youth”, and “Percentages of women who have experienced the sculpting power of Lakme Youth Infinity Day Crème” were found to be unsubstantiated and misleading. “ Marico Ltd”s ad “Parachute Advanced apnaiye aur paiye World’s Best Hair”, was found to be misleading and exaggerated.

In education category “Swadesh Competition Classes, Jodhpur, Rajasthan”’s claim of offering Government job in 3 months was found to be unsubstantiated since there was no data to support the claim. “Orane Institute of Beauty & Wellness” made false claim of having largest network of beauty and wellness Institutes in Delhi-Punjab-Chandigarh-Gujarat-Rajasthan-Haryana-Himachal Pradesh”. It also made a false claim of “100 per cent Job Assistance” through the institute .

Under the Food and Beverages category GlaxoSmithKline’s claim that “Horlicks”, “Helps Manage Healthy Blood Pressure”, was found to be misleading by ambiguity and implication.

In E commerce category, “ Amazon India” ad found to be offering “HTC Desire 620G Dual Sim” for the discounted price of Rs.7375, whereas the actual MRP was Rs.9990. “ Cleartrip”’s advertisement was also found to be misleading. Similarly “Magic Bricks” a property site made false leadership claim. Its website did not quantify the total number of properties displayed or sold.

Also, “Bridgestone India”’s claim that its tyres were eco-friendly was exaggerated. The stunts in normal traffic shown in Bajaj Auto’s ad was in disregard to safety and sought to encourages violation of traffic rules. Similarly Idea Cellular’s ad "ek jaroori suchna! abhi call karen 53111 aur payen 50 Rs ka free recharge”, was false and misleading.Philips Appliances’s ad offering life long free service was also misleading.

In other categories, Indigo Airlines’s offer “With fares starting at just Rs.858, book till 8th November 2016 for travel between 11th January 2017 and 11th April 2017”, was false since no such flight fare exist. Besides, there was no specific information about which route or for which flight this offer was valid.

ASCI’s role has been acclaimed by various Government agencies, including The Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA), Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and Ministry of AYUSH. The Supreme Court of India in its recent judgement also affirmed and recognized the self-regulatory mechanism put in place for advertising content by ASCI.

What is Food Fortification? Why Milk, Salt and Cereals Need to Be Fortified?

Highlights

• Food fortification is a common practice that is carried out commercially
• FSSAI has set up a panel to draft guidelines on fortification of food
• Food fortification was a measure taken to curb nutrient deficiencies

Familiar with iodised salt or calcium enriched milk? Food fortification or enrichment is a common practice that is carried out commercially. It refers to a process where essential micronutrients, such as vitamins and minerals, are added to food ingredients to make them more nutritious. This is done because sometimes post agriculture, the food products may lack certain vital nutrients due to poor soil conditions or other environmental factors. Also, in some regions the normal diet of the population lacks variety, where they consume only limited food items leading to dietary deficiencies. For example, one often hears tales of farmers living on a meal comprising boiled rice, a pinch of salt and a green chilli; or whole wheat rotis with pickle on the side. To curb such incidences of malnutrition, the staples are hence fortified.

In the early 90s, the WHO (World Health Organisation), FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations), and other nationally recognized organizations brought to light that there were billions of people worldwide who were suffering from a variety of micronutrient deficiencies, particularly Vitamin A, Iodine and Iron. The need for providing additional micronutrients in food sources was thus established.

WHO defines food fortification as “the practice of deliberately increasing the content of an essential micronutrient, i.e. vitamins and minerals (including trace elements) in a food irrespective of whether the nutrients were originally in the food before processing or not, so as to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply and to provide a public health benefit with minimal risk to health.”

What Food Items Can Be Fortified?

While we are all familiar with fortified salts and milk, other ingredients that fall under this category include atta, maida, edible oil, butter, cheese, cereals, infant formulas, teas and other healthy beverages, etc.

The Drawback of Food Fortification

While fortified foods is a stepping stone towards preventing malnutrition on a large scale, health experts point out the fact that there could be chances of increased toxicity as well, if proper method of fortification is not carried out by the respective food brands. According to researchers of the study on Fortification of Foods with Vitamin D in India, done by University of California, “The supplementation strategy certainly has greater specificity of intervention and allows better dose adjustment. However, its disadvantages are: incurred user cost, low compliance, self-prescription and increased risk of toxicity. Fortification strategy has the advantage of universality of the intervention and greater compliance. Drawbacks of the fortification strategy are: the dose is a function of food quantity consumed; lower specificity; and varying standards legislated for each country and quality control and regulatory challenges pertaining to fortification levels with the manufacturers of fortified foods.”

Therefore it is essential to set certain guidelines to prevent any mishap. Addressing this issue at hand, The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has set up a panel to draft guidelines on fortification of food items such as salt, milk, wheat flour, rice and edible oil, and prepare strategies to address malnutrition problem. While it is important to boost production and consumption of fortified foods, the guidelines for fortified food production is of greater priority.

Fortified Food Guidelines

The FSSAI draft rules were operationalised in October even as they sought comments from stakeholders before finalising the final regulations. Standards have been set for fortification of salt with iodine and iron; of vegetable oil and milk with vitamin A and D; wheat flour and rice with iron, folic acid, zinc, vitamin B12, vitamin A and some other micro nutrients

“FSSAI has set up a new Scientific Panel on Food Fortification and Nutrition to address issues related to fortification of food,” the regulator said in a statement. The Panel will identify critical nutritional gaps in the Indian diet in general as well as in specific target groups based on diet surveys and credible scientific evidence. It will define strategies to address nutritional needs of the general population and vulnerable groups, besides reviewing the standards for all suitable food fortifying vehicles.

The panel will also address regulatory and related technological issues, review proposals from industry using modern risk assessment methods, and prescribe standard sampling and test methods for effective monitoring, surveillance and enforcement of the relevant regulations. With an effective regulatory mechanism along with the continuous support of all the stakeholders, FSSAI expects that the problem of malnutrition in general and micronutrient malnutrition in particular would be overcome soon.

FSSAI has also unveiled a logo for fortified foods which may be used by food companies.

Poison on your plate

The Law Commission has recommended stringent punishment for adulterators and sent these to the Supreme Court for consideration~By Ramesh Menon

Hungry kya? Food often sets our heart racing with excitement. But, wait. It may not be safe. Pause for a moment before you eat. Are you sure about the contents of your meal?

Here are some imminent dangers: Your chicken fry might contain some harmful antibiotics. The rice biryani might have mercury and aluminium phosphide from tablets that are used as fumigants in rice bags and are poisonous. The silver leaf on sweets may contain an animal residue.

Okay, you like to avoid sugar and opt instead for fruits. But it could have been ripened with carcinogenic calcium carbide. You want to finally sip some tea. But it could have iron filings that are sometimes mixed with the tea leaves when it is cut by iron rollers.

The milk in the tea could have chalk, urea and even soap. It could lead to kidney stones.

After reading this, you may not be hungry anymore. Adulteration has become a thriving business in India, putting our health at risk. But there is hope round the corner.

ENHANCED PUNISHMENT

The Law Commission has now recommended that if someone dies consuming adulterated food or drinks, the punishment for the guilty will be enhanced from six months to life imprisonment under Sections 272 and 273 of the IPC. It recommended that non-grievous injury caused by adulteration could attract a jail term of one year and a fine of Rs 3 lakh. If it results in a grievous injury, it could lead to a jail term of six years and a fine of Rs 5 lakh. And if the person dies, it can lead to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10 lakh. These recommendations have been forwarded to the Supreme Court.

In fact, the Supreme Court had asked the Commission to give its view if the centre was required to revisit the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, which incidentally, is the single reference point for looking at food and safety standards. Interestingly, while listening to a PIL last year, the Supreme Court had favoured a life term for offences to those adulterating food that proves fatal.

In the case of iron filings in tea, these are usually removed by the manufacturers with the help of magnets. But some particles get left behind. The Consumer Education and Research Centre (CERC) in Ahmedabad cautions that an iron overload could upset the stomach, result in organ damage and even death.

Recently, the centre, which is a credible consumer pressure group, wondered why the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India had increased the permissible limit for iron particles in tea powder to 250 mg/kg from 150 mg/kg.

Uday Mawani, CEO, CERC, said: “The Law Commission’s recommendations are a welcome move as adulteration affects all categories of consumers, especially the poor and vulnerable. Consuming adulterated food is like a double whammy as medical bills go up and disposable income for consumption drops even more. It affects their quality of life even further.”

DEVASTATING EFFECT

In 2014, the Centre for Science and Environment had discovered antibiotic residue in chicken samples collected from Delhi and the National Capital Region. These antibiotics are fed to chicken to treat for possible infections of their urinary tract, respiratory tract, eye and ear, blood stream, diarrhoea and tuberculosis. As we all know now, continued exposure to antibiotics could end up in anti-microbial resistance that ultimately leads us to battle superbugs that have no cure.

Wanting to make a quick buck, fruit vendors use calcium carbide, commonly referred by them as “masala” to induce quick ripening of fruits within hours. Though this is banned, it continues on the sly as there are hardly any checks. Calcium carbide is carcinogenic and can cause mouth ulcers, gastric irritation, food poisoning and death.

Food dyes are one of the most widely used and dangerous additives. Your fav-ourite funky blue cocktail could damage your brain and kidneys. Experts say blue colour is known to cross the blood-brain barrier and cause permanent damage over time. Red and green colours are known to cause tumours in the bladder and testes and yellow can trigger hyperactivity in children.

A recent study by the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration found that 20 percent of milk sold in the state continues to be adulterated. Some had used just tap water which contains impurities. But it isn’t as if bottled water is pure. A study by CERC of 13 leading brands had earlier shown that 10 had foreign objects floating in them, while two contained heavy metals which are toxic.

EXERCISE CAUTION

We just have to watch what we eat. Sugar can have tiny chalk crystals, and salt, powdered stone. Chilli powder can have brick powder, while coriander powder, sawdust or even powdered cow dung. Honey can contain jaggery syrup. Mouth-watering barfis can have harmful dyes and colours that cause cancer, while cumin seeds, coal particles and sooji, coloured sawdust.

Mawani says: “Producers must get their products tested for adulteration from independent laboratories. What we need is a regulation that statutorily requires periodic testing and reporting.”

The Supreme Court is now considering the recommendations of the Commission. Consumer activists feel that life term for food adulterators may be a deterrent.

Zarda packets seized

Acting on a tip off on February 9 from Police Officials of PS, CCS, Port Blair regarding arrival of contraband tobacco products through Andaman Super Express, Courier Service here, Mr R.V. Murugaraj, Food Safety Officer, South Andaman opened two packages of parcel in front of Mr S. Purushotham, Manager, Andaman Super Express, courier service and police personnel from PS, CCS and found Ratna 150 brand Zarda of 50 gms pouches packed in Select Premium CTC tea pouches. Altogether, 151 packets of Zarda were recovered from the tea packets and the prohibited tobacco (Zarda) and tea pouches were seized by the Food Safety Officer in the presence of Police Officials and Manager of the courier service. 

All the courier service/parcel service’s running in A&N Islands have been instructed to pass on information of any suspicious parcel arrived through their courier service to the District Food Safety Office, South Andaman at No. 03192-231024, 03192-238881 and 09434280018 (CFS/DCSA) for thorough check before its released.