CRPF mess had no food safety licence

Low-quality fish might have caused food poisoning

Low-quality fish prepared in temporary facilities, having no food safety licensing, could have led to food poisoning at the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Camp at Pallippuram, as per the preliminary assessment of the Food Safety officials. A day after 195 jawans of the CRPF camp were admitted to various hospitals with food poisoning, the CRPF officials have remained tight-lipped and out of the reach of the media, even as an internal inquiry has been ordered.

This incident of food poisoning in a CRPF Recruit Training Centre comes after some BSF and CRPF jawans from different parts of the country posted videos online with complaints regarding food and lack of facilities.

Around 450 jawans from various States arrived in the camp a few days ago for training and have been housed in three barracks. Each of the barracks have separate mess halls. Soon after the dinner at 8.30 p.m. on Saturday, some of the jawans complained of dizziness and stomach pain and a few others vomited. Some of them were taken to the Government Medical College Hospital and the A.J. Hospital in Kazhakuttam. As more people complained of uneasiness, all of those who consumed fish were taken to the medical college.

Denied entry

The Food Safety officials soon arrived at the camp, but they were denied entry.

“We were told by the officials at the gate that they have instructions from the top not to allow anyone inside. Health Minister K.K. Shylaja was visiting the jawans at the Government Medical College Hospital at this time. When we informed her of the incident, she got in touch with the CRPF officials. We were allowed in only after this,” says K. Anilkumar, Joint Commissioner of Food Safety.

According to him, the mess facilities did not have any food safety licensing.

Not permanent

“From what we know, these mess facilities are not for permanent use. It is used only when the batches arrive for training. Any facility that prepares food for a large number of people comes under compulsory licensing. In this case, this is more important because the jawans should be provided the best quality food. This fish used in the curry was found to be fried, indicating that it could be of low quality. It was brought from a market in Mariyanadu, near Kazhakuttam,” he said.

Samples collected

Samples of the fish curry, rice, water, and the oil used for cooking have been collected and sent to the Food Safety Department’s Chief Analytical Lab as well as the Police Department’s lab.

Despite many attempts, the CRPF officials have remained incommunicado. At the Government Medical College Hospital, the media personnel were not allowed inside the wards, to interact with the jawans who were admitted there.

109 return to camp

By evening, 109 of the 111 personnel who were admitted to the medical college hospital returned to the camp, as they were found to have recovered. Two personnel, who have fever and headache, are still admitted there.

Food safety issue ‘neglected’ in India: parliamentary panel

The parliamentary panel emphasizes on the need for ample provisioning of mobile food testing labs

The parliamentary committee on demands for grants for 2017-18 for the Department of Health and Family Welfare expects the department to take appropriate measures to arrest shortfall in utilisation of funds. 

New Delhi: A parliamentary panel has asked the health department to take necessary measures to arrest underutilisation of funds by the country’s food safety regulator FSSAI and ensure strengthening of the food testing system in a time-bound manner.

It said the safety and standardisation of food is a “neglected” area in India and the health department, under which the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) falls, needs to focuS more on this field. Emphasising the need for ample provisioning of mobile food testing labs, the committee has also recommended that the results of all food items being tested should be advertised in newspapers and social media to make people aware.

The parliamentary committee on demands for grants for 2017-18 for the Department of Health and Family Welfare noted that there has been a “consistent trend” of underutilisation of funds in 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17.

The committee, chaired by Rajya Sabha MP Ram Gopal Yadav, “expects the department to take appropriate measures to arrest shortfall in utilisation of budgetary funds and ensure that the strengthening of food testing systems and laboratories is done in a time-bound manner.” The FSSAI was established in 2006 and the status of safety, regulation, manufacturing, processing, distribution, sale and import of food items for human consumption shows a “dreary” picture in India, the committee said.

Slow progress of developmental activities and initiatives would hamper the quality of work being rendered in the context of safety and standardisation of food items, it noted. Since there are numerous domains under the FSSAI, underutilisation of budgeted funds indicates “negligence” in this area and “poor” financial planning on the part of the authorities concerned, the committee said.

It emphasised the need for ample provisioning of mobile food testing labs which, the committee said, would go a long way in ensuring awareness regarding precautionary measures so that diseases spreading through contaminated and sub-standard food are minimised. It asked the department to set desirable and achievable targets and seek additional funds depending upon the implementation of the scheme at a later stage.

Army to get dressed frozen chicken

CHANDIGARH: All Army personnel will now be provided dressed frozen chicken that will be approved by the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) as butcheries at all Army stations across the country will be closed shortly. Till now, contractors supplied live chicken to Army units.

Each personnel of the 14 lakh-strong Army will get 170-180 gram chicken per day, which will be supplied from FSSAI-approved centres, Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points and ISO 22000-certified plants only. The Army has so far ordered about 20,000 tonnes of chicken.

The new rule came into effect on April 1. Eight to 10 chicken processing plants will now supply to the Army. The processing plants have been allotted tenders of Army stations by commands on the basis of lowest bids. Frozen chicken was being supplied to 26 Army stations over the past three years under a pilot project. 

“Slaughterhouses run by the Army in cantonments did not have FSSI certification,” an officer said. 

The then defence minister Manohar Parrikar had said in January that directions had been issued to ensure supply of FSSAI-approved frozen chicken i to all units. A few months ago, BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav in a YouTube video had alleged poor-quality food being served to paramilitary troops.

Five more BJP-ruled states follow suit after UP crackdown on illegal slaughterhouses

Just when the crackdown on "illegal" slaughterhouses in Uttar Pradesh was raising doubts about its overall effect on the ecology of Indian exports and the $4.8 billion industry, five more BJP-ruled states have decided to follow suit of the north Indian state that is so far the largest producer of beef in the country.

According to a report in News18, similar clampdown id being reported from Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana, all of which have a BJP-led government at the helm.

According to a report in The Times of India, Jharkhand government too has given the "illegally" operating slaughterhouses in the state an ultimatum, giving them 72 hours to stop their operations or gain proper clearances from the relevant state authorities. The report further states that not one abattoir in Jharkhand had got clearance from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), adding that the Ranchi Municipal Corporation has given licences to a few units.

It is noteworthy here, that slaughterhouses are deemed highly polluting industries, and require a range of environmental and food grade clearances before they can operate.

Similar reports came from Rajasthan, where more than 4,000 illegal shops in Jaipur face crackdown by the end of this week, according to Zee News. Meat sellers, however, allege that the government has not renewed or issued any licences since March 2016, calling it a part of larger conspiracy. They also claim that at least 950 of the 4,000 shops currently facing shut down were legal. In Haridwar, Uttarakhand, three meat shops were sealed while 11 were shut in Raipur and one in Indore, News 18 report said.

Besides this, in Gurugram, Haryana, Shiv Sena workers have reportedly arm-twisted meet vendors, including a KFC outlet, into shutting shops in view of Navratri. The party workers also wanted all meat shops to remain shut on every Tuesday claiming that Hindus abstain from meat eating on this day.

Moreover, as another report in India Today states that impressed by the action in UP, Haryana cow protection groups are already urging the state's chief minister to impose a shutdown on the illegal slaughterhouses. This is in addition to the fact that the government has decided not to issue any more fresh licenses to slaughterhouses. This development is especially unsurprising, Haryana is also the state where much brouhaha has emerged around beef and cow slaughter. The state's chief minister had gone all out pitching for domesticating cows, while promising government benefits to people who would breed cows. Haryana is also the state where samples of beef biryani were collected and tested in laboratries to determine whether the meat used was cow meat.

The action in these states come close at the heels of UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath's promise to uproot the illegal meat industry. The BJP had also vowed to shut down all illegal slaughterhouses and place curbs on all mechanical abattoirs in the state.

However, the sudden clampdown — without duly addressing the concerns of over Rs 15,000-crore industry, which employs more than 25 lakh people in the state — had hit the industry hard with experts opining it will cripple certain job-generating industries dependent on the slaughterhouses.

A research by IndiaSpend shows that the crackdown hurting the slaughterhouse ecology will also trigger a domino effect that could impact diverse, rural and urban economic and social systems not just in UP but nationwide. The article pointed out that the slaughterhouse ban will also cripple the meat industry, leather tanneries and livestock industry.

Industry experts are already predicting a price hike after Navratri, as acute meat shortage is likely to threaten Delhi meat industry as it relies heavily on meat purchased from neighbouring states of UP and Punjab.

The ban has caused serious concerns about the meat industry in the state, which according to APEDA, an export regulator for agricultural and processed food products, is the highest producer of meat with 19.1 percent share of the national figure, followed by Andhra Pradesh at 15.2 percent and West Bengal at 10.9 percent.

Now with other states following suite, it can substantially threaten the huge industry which fetches India it's largest share of foreign exports, according to a report in CNN-Money. The report notes that for a country that revers its cows, a substantial increase in red meat export has shot up and it "now earns India more export dollars than basmati rice."

Another report in Quartz points out that not only is India the largest exporter of beef but it has widened its export margin over Brazil, which was the top exporter till 2012. In the entire last fiscal, 2015-16, the exports aggregated Rs 26,684 crore with the main export destinations including Vietnam, Malaysia, Egypt, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.