Mukul for stringent food safety requirements

SHILLONG: Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said processing and packaging of food should conform to stringent food safety requirements and brand building should revolve around high-end products, which should be exclusive and unique to the State.

Attending the valedictory function of the two-day state-level workshop on business opportunities in food processing, packaging and tourism under National Mission on Food Processing here on Tuesday, the chief minister urged the entrepreneurs to look at the options available in agriculture, horticulture, tourism and industries and become successful entrepreneurs with dedication, hard work, sincerity and innovation.

Sangma said the workshop is important and relevant for Meghalaya and for the youth who are looking at entrepreneurship.

A.L Hek, chairman of Meghalaya Industrial Development Corporation, said the State is home to a number of temperate and sub-tropical fruits and vegetables that have potential in food processing and will also generate employment in rural areas.

He said the unemployed youth in the State needs handholding and urged the Department of Commerce and Industry to help them explore the potentials in food industry and tourism.

Promotional schemes and policies for horticultural products, management of food processing enterprises, bamboo as source of health food and nutrition, food safety standards authority of Indian Act, exploring the nature and traditional knowledge for business with focus on Meghalaya, flexible packaging materials, promotional schemes and policies for development of tourism and convergence of schemes by various resource persons were the topics discussed during the two-day workshop that was attended by entrepreneurs from all over the State.

Call for hygienic food

The A’chik Youth Council has written to Health and Family Welfare Minister Roshan Warjri through the deputy commissioner of West Garo Hills urging her to send samples of fish, fruits and vegetables brought from outside the State to the laboratory to ensure safety.

The youth council also sought ban on use of newspapers for wrapping food items in the unorganised food sector as per the guidelines of the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India.

Ghaziabad will start issuing online licences to meat shops

Nearly 152 shops have been closed for want of licences, indulging in open slaughtering and not maintaining hygiene conditions.

The district administration has decided to start issuance of licences from Wednesday. However, the food safety department said all licences issued henceforth will adhere to guidelines laid down under the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Business), Regulations of 2011.

For the purpose, retailers will now be categorised as those having an annual turnover below Rs 12 lakh and those having an annual turnover above Rs 12 lakh. The officials said all details will have to be filled online on the website of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and submit documents, in hard copy, within 15 days to the local administration.

“For the purpose of submission of documents, we will set up a single window at the municipal corporation and nagar palikas where nodal officers for the respective departments will be available. After submission, proper checks will be carried out and thereafter the licences will be issued by the food safety department. Further, all the listed guidelines will have to be followed by the license holders,” said Nidhi Kesarwani, district magistrate (DM).

After the submission of documents, different departments such as the municipal corporation, food safety department, the police and the veterinary department will carry out checks before issuance of licences.

“The applicants will also have to disclose the source of procurement. There will be no open slaughtering permitted. The nearest procurement can be done from Ghazipur Market in Delhi or from the four units (export oriented) operational in Ghaziabad. The four units have consented to provide facility to cater to local demand,” DM added.

Nearly 152 shops have been closed for want of licences, indulging in open slaughtering and not maintaining hygiene conditions. The meat shop owners continued their second day of strike against the decision. The situation has also affected the business in Ghazipur poultry and fish market.

“Nearly 30-35% business has been affected since the crackdown began. We expect a major decline in sales due to Navratra, which has started,” said Mohammad Irfan Qureshi, a supplier from Ghazipur market in Delhi.

UP's meat market set to change forever after Yogi Adityanath's crackdown on industry

With abrupt closure of unlicensed meat shops in Noida, the city dwellers are buying meat at higher rates from the legal meat vendors.

The city saw major crackdown on unlicensed meat shops by police after the new chief minister Yogi Adityanath took charge.

The Times of Indiareported that nearly 1,000 illegal vendors were operating in Greater Noida, which now stand closed.

BP Kumar, who heads the civil administrative wing of the Noida Authority, told Firstpost that none of the meat shops were licensed by it.

“The District Magistrate’s office issues license to meat shops. The drive against the illegal ones is also conducted by them,” he said.

“Police officials came to my shop and told me to wind up business as I do not have license to sell meat,” says Rizwan, a meat seller in Sector 49 in Noida.

Rizwan, who is now vacating his makeshift shop, that he took on rent a couple of years ago, further said that not only the meat sellers but also the fish sellers were told to shut down their business.

“They came again to ensure that we followed the instructions. They checked if we still had stocks of fish and poultry in our shops,” he added.

The police department claimed that there was no dearth of meat in Noida, even after the closure of unlicensed shops, as there were licensed shops too.

“Most of the hundred meat shops in the jurisdiction of Noida and Greater Noida were found to be legal. The illegal ones were immediately sealed, but it has not caused any problem to the general public as they catered to few customers,” Dharmendra Singh, SSP Gautam Budh Nagar said to Hindustan Times.

Despite claims made by police department, buyers complain of high price of meat in licensed shops, as the unlicensed were seen as the cheaper places despite the fact that they did not adhere to many of the food safety standards laid by the ‘Food Safety Standards Act 2006’.

“We used to get chicken at Rs 200 per kilogram and mutton at Rs 400 per kilogram at the most, from the shops in our neighborhood,” says Pushpinder Singh, a resident of Barola village near sector 49 in Noida.

But he says that after the unlicensed shops were closed he went to a licensed meat shop, where he found that chicken was sold at Rs 240 and mutton at Rs 480 per kilogram respectively.

Shakeel Abbas, a worker in a licensed meat shop told Firstpost that the price of meat is higher in licensed shops due to high operating costs.

“Most of these shops have electricity run cold storages to stock meat. Moreover they have trained manpower at work. Most important factor of cost escalation is the location where these shops are functional,” he said.

Most of the licensed shops are in the community markets of various sectors in Noida, which are seen as posh localities in comparison to the slums and villages where unlicensed ones operated.

The unlicensed meat shops that operated in makeshift stalls or on the roadside had hardly any operating cost.

Many unlicensed meat sellers have now applied for permission for their shops, reports The Times of India.

As per norms these vendors have to apply for registration to the officer designated by the Food Safety Commissioner.

But many of these new applicants are unlikely to get permission as they cannot adhere to the food safety norms.

As per norms meat shops must be of concrete structure with adequate sanitation system, setting up of which costs a few lakhs of rupees, which most of them cannot afford.

The National Green Tribunal in the year 2015 imposed a ban on all illegal slaughter houses in Uttar Pradesh and directed state authorities to ensure that there is proper regulation of meat shops.

But, it took Yogi Adityanath to become the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh to ban the illegal meat shops that were seen as major health hazards in the state.

With most of the small players in the meat market wiped out the 100 or so licensed meat sellers are likely to gain control of the supply chain, changing the market forever.

All meat shops in Noida are illegal, says food safety department

The FSDA will be able to issue a licence only if the applicant shows them all required documents, including a no-objection certificate from the municipal body, in this case the Noida authority. 

The Gautam Budh Nagar district administration said on Monday that all meat shops in Noida and Greater Noida selling mutton, chicken, fish or buffalo meat are illegal. Most of these shops in the two cities have been shut in the past few days as they do not comply with the requisite conditions to operate.

Officials of the food safety and drug administration (FSDA) department maintain that all meat shops in the district were running illegally as they did not have a licence.

“Possessing a certificate of registration is irrelevant. They were never issued any licence as they did not fulfil the conditions mandatory to run a meat shop. We will soon begin the process of issuing licences to meat sellers who fulfil all norms,” said Mahendra Srivastava, designated officer for FSDA in Gautam Budh Nagar. FSDA is the licencing authority for selling meat in the district.

When asked how some meat shops are still operational in parts of Noida, he said,“We sealed all of them. If anyone has reopened their shop, we will take action against them.”

He added that the FSDA will be able to issue a licence only if the applicant shows them all the required documents, including a no-objection certificate (NOC).

“A NOC from the local authority (Noida or Greater Noida) is the first important document required to obtain a licence. If the authorities do not issue NOC, we cannot issue a licence,” said Srivastava.

However, the Noida and Greater Noida authorities, which act as municipal corporations in their respective areas, do not have a policy in place for meat shops.

“We are studying the policies of other municipal bodies on giving permissions for meat shops so that we can draft one for Noida and Greater Noida. As of now, we do not have any policy in place to be able to give permissions to meat shop owners,” said Deepak Agarwal, chief executive officer, Noida and Greater Noida authorities.

Officials of the district administration said around 80 meat shops operating in Noida’s sectors 5, 8, 9 and 70, in Noida were shut because they were not following the norms.

However, customers of such shops asked why the administration did not act earlier and had been allowing meat shops to run without a licence.

“Why did the police or the administration not act against these shops earlier if they were operating without fulfilling the conditions? The authorities should have ensured that only authorised shops were operating so that consumers got hygienic meat and chicken. It means the government is not concerned about people consuming meat from these illegal shops,” said Tikam Singh of Sector 27.

Some officials, who were not willing to go on record, said the previous state government did not give them the liberty to act against illegal meat shops.

“Now, the government orders are to shut down all illegal meat shops, so we are doing that,” said Srivastava.

Man posing as food inspector arrested for extorting money

The accused imposter has been booked and arrested by Agra police.

AGRA: Food safety and drug administration of Agra apprehended an imposter posing as food inspector who was extorting money from grocery-store and small food outlets in the city.

The arresting happened amid the ongoing FSDA raids especially on mutton shops, abattoirs and others. The accused imposter was identified as 42-year-old Sujan Singh.

Speaking to TOI, food safety officer Ajeet Singh said, "For last couple of weeks we were receiving inputs about a man claiming himself to be a food inspector and extorting money from shopkeepers."

"On Tuesday we caught him from Bundu Katra area on Gwalior road on a tip from local grocery store owners while he was extorting money. During questioning, the man claimed himself to be attached with commissioner office which was also found to be false," said officer Singh.

Resident of Shahganj, the accused imposter was reportedly found extorting money from Jaipur house, Lohamandi, Sadar and other areas.

The accused imposter has been booked and arrested by Sadar police.

Chennai temple offers burgers, brownies as prasad

Prasadam does not consist of the traditional laddoos or pedhas in this Chennai temple. This little temple in Padappai, a suburb on the outskirts of Chennai has been replaced with fast food. The Jaya Durga Peetham in Chennai offers brownies, burgers, cherry tomato salads and cracker sandwiches. The fast food at the temple is also certified by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India(FSSAI) and products come with an expiry date. The western prasad is not the only thing that the temple offers differently, but the service is also trendy. Visitors have to slip token into the vending machine to collect boxes of their prasadam.

K Sri Sridhar, a herbal oncologist, who was the brains behind the idea said that the new menu has sparked interest among locals as well as tourists. Talking about the American prasadam he said, “The idea was to show that anything that is nutritious and prepared in a clean kitchen with a clean mind can be served to God. It doesn’t have to be only traditional dishes.” 

Not only prasad, the temple delivers cake prasadam to locals on their birthday. They have a computerised register of their birth dates and delivers cake prasadam to people on their birthday. The concept has become a huge hit among elderly devotees who feels special to be treated differently. 81-year-old Subbulakshmi was elated when she received a cake prasadam on her birthday. Times of India quoted Subbulakshmi as saying, “It was so pretty with flowers and icing. And it came with an agar deepam (a traditional oil lamp) instead of candles which was so nice. Just like they light at the temple. When we set up the temple we thought we should give Gods the food we relish.”

DINAKARAN NEWS

DINAKARAN NEWS

சுகாதாரமற்ற ஓட்டல்களுக்கு நோட்டீஸ்: உணவு பாதுகாப்புத்துறை எச்சரிக்கை

சேலம்: தாரமங்கலம் பஸ் ஸ்டாண்டில், சுகாதார சீர்கேடு நிறைந்த இரு ஓட்டல்களுக்கு, நோட்டீஸ் வழங்கி, உணவுபாதுகாப்பு அலுவலர்கள் எச்சரித்துள்ளனர்.

சேலம் மாவட்ட உணவு பாதுகாப்பு நியமன அலுவலர் அனுராதா தலைமையில், நேற்று தாரமங்கலம் பகுதியில், சோதனை மேற்கொள்ளப்பட்டது. பஸ் ஸ்டாண்டு, காய்கறி கடைகள், ஓட்டல்கள், பள்ளிக்கூட பகுதி கடைகள் உள்ளிட்ட நிறுவனங்களில் அலுவலர்கள் இளங்கோவன், சரவணன், சிரஞ்சீவி, மாரியப்பன் ஆகியோர் கொண்ட குழுவினர், சோதனையில் ஈடுபட்டனர். மதியம், 2:30 மணிக்கு துவங்கிய சோதனை, இரவு, 7:00 மணிவரை நடந்தது. பஸ் ஸ்டாண்டில், சுகாதார சீர்கேடு நிறைந்து, மோசமாக காணப்பட்ட மாயாபஜார் என்ற, இரு ஓட்டல்களுக்கு நோட்டீஸ் வழங்கி எச்சரிக்கப்பட்டது.

நியமன அலுவலர் அனுராதா கூறியதாவது: தடை செய்யப்பட்ட, 7,500 ரூபாய் மதிப்பிலான புகையிலை பொருட்கள் பறிமுதல் செய்யப்பட்டன. மேலும், காலாவதியான அரை லிட்டர் அளவுள்ள, 120 பாட்டில் குளிர்பானங்கள், போலி குளிர்பான பாக்கெட்டுகள் பறிமுதல் செய்யப்பட்டன. பதிவுச்சான்று அல்லது உரிமம் பெற நிறுவனங்களுக்கு அறிவுறுத்தப்பட்டுள்ளது. இல்லையெனில், சட்ட நடவடிக்கை எடுக்கப்படும் என, எச்சரிக்கை செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளது. இவ்வாறு அவர் கூறினார்.