Apr 5, 2017
Food Safety In India – Is It Lacking?
When it comes to food safety, we don’t want to take anything for granted. We assume that the FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) have our backs and are doing the best they can to ensure a clean and healthy food experience for all. Unfortunately, this may not be the case. A parliamentary panel has asked the health department to consider taking the necessary step to address the underutilization of resources by the country’s food FSSAI and to make sure that the test screening of the meals happens faster.
The report said the basic safety and standardisation of food is a “neglected” area in India and the health department which FSSAI comes under, needs to concentrate more in this field.
SKIM
They emphasised the necessity for enough screening labs, the committee also suggested that the results of most foods being analysed should be publicised in the news and social media in order to raise awareness. To be fair, the nation does want to know.
The parliamentary committee on Demands for Grants for 2017-18 for the Department of Health and Family Welfarenoted 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, said that he expects the team to adopt appropriate procedures to stop the shortfall in the utilisation of the budgeted money allocated for food testing systems and laboratories and to ensure it is used in a time-bound manner.
The FSSAI was founded in 2006, however, the state of the food industry is in a pretty dreary state. The committee noted that low improvement of developmental activities and initiatives would hamper the grade of work being rendered in the safety and standardisation of foods. Since there are so many fields under the FSSAI, underutilisation of the budget indicates “negligence” and “poor” financial thinking on their part.
It emphasised the need for more mobile food testing units which, the committee said, would go quite a distance in ensuring consciousness regarding protective measures so that diseases spreading through polluted 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. I think we can agree that this is something we can get on board with.
Adulterated tea, soft drinks seized
Food safety officials on Tuesday seized adulterated tea, expired soft drinks, and putrefying corn cobs during a raid in shops and commercial establishments in Udhagamandalam town.
P. Kalaivani, Designated Officer, Food Safety, the Nilgiris district, along with food safety officers B. Sivakumar, S. Selvaraj, Adhi Gopalakrishnan, and Arun Kumar conducted the raids on shops along the Botanical Garden Road, near the Collectorate, Commercial Road, and Ooty Boat House.
Sources said that more than 10 kg of adulterated tea, 20 kg of putrefying corn, and 30 bottles worth of expired soft drinks were seized and were destroyed.
All the store owners were warned of action.
Officials said that the raids were launched before the start of the summer festival to ensure that tourists were protected from unscrupulous store owners. More raids would be conducted in the coming days, they said.
Special squads to check food from outside
The Commissioner of Food Safety has directed that special district-level squads be set up at check-posts for examining the consignments of vegetables, fruits, fish and dried fish being brought into the State from the neighbouring States.
All district Assistant Food Safety Commissioners have been asked to organise special squads to conduct checks at check-posts and collect details on the food business operators who are bringing in vegetables/fish/fruits across the border and if they possess the licence and registration.
The details of vehicles and from where the food items are being brought in should be collected.
The surveillance samples of fruits/vegetables should be sent to the pesticide residue testing labs of Kerala Agricultural University whereas the surveillance samples of fish/dried fish should be sent to the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology. The statutory samples of fruits, vegetables, fish and dried fish should be sent to the labs under the Food Safety Department.
The Food Safety Commissioner has directed that the details of the food business operators should also be collected and it should be ascertained if they possess the mandatory FSSAI licence or registration.
Kerala: 76 new officials to fortify food safety department
A food safety inspection in Thiruvananthapuram.
Thiruvananthapuram: 76 new food safety officers who completed their induction training will be checking fruits, vegetables and milk vans that are coming from across the border. The new set of officials will be checking water tanker lorries that sell drinking water for their quality. Kerala is the only State to have three full-fledged National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL). Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala alleged that the work of the food safety department had slowed down and shot off a letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Ever since T. V. Anupama, former food safety commissioner, who had put the State on the path to a healthy way of eating, was appointed as director of the social justice department last November, department officials were in a quandary as they had a hard time fighting the powerful pesticide lobby. But with stringent action and surveillance being enforced from across the border, the level of vegetables laced with pesticides had come down from 18 to 10 percent. Dr. Navjyoth Khosa took over from Anupama, but took a while to find his feet. But last week, Ms. Khosa came out with a landmark order stating that vehicle operators and also buyers within the State who got fruits, vegetables, fish and dried fish should be brought under the scanner. For the first time in the country, an oath was administered by the food safety commissioner to the newly appointed officers.
“Earlier, there was a dearth of adequate food safety inspectors. But with 76 new food safety officers being inducted on Tuesday after 50 days training, we are going to be pro-active. Apart from checking fruits, vegetables, fish and dried fish, from Wednesday the new food safety officers will be checking milk vans that are coming from across the border as well as tanker lorries which bring water”, said a top food safety official. A majority of the new appointments are veterinary doctors, agriculture degree holders, biotechnologists, biochemists, chemistry post-graduates and even homeopathy doctors. Currently, NABL labs are functional only in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and New Delhi having one each whereas Kerala has one each in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikode. The food safety department has generated Rs 20 crore per year to the Government from licensing and registration alone. However, Chennithala alleged that the mechanism to check food items at check posts had come to a standstill. According to him, earlier all restaurants were clearly monitored and erring enterprises booked, but now food safety officials were lax in their duty.
HYDERABAD: EATERIES FLOUT MEAT STORAGE NORMS
The health department of the GHMC says meat is not being stored at the correct temperature in hotels and restaurants in the city.
Hyderabad: The health department of the GHMC says meat is not being stored at the correct temperature in hotels and restaurants in the city. The GHMC has set temperature limits and storage standards for commercial storage of meat, and restaurants that do not follow these requirements can be booked under the Food Safety and Standards Act. This is good advice for households to follow too.
A senior health officer from the GHMC’s veterinary wing says that hotels and other catering services must follow hygienic practices and there are a few simple rules that everyone should follow. Like, for example, ensuring that cooked products that are frozen and are then thawed before eating should not be frozen again. They can be kept at 3ºC for not more than five days before being consumed.
“Sea food should be kept at less than 3ºC. Storage period between preparation and consumption should not be more than five days, including the days of cooking and consumption,” he said. The GHMC has set standards with regard to storage, re-heating and the temperature to be maintained for meat and fish products.
Adulteration, substandard food items? WhatsApp video to 9482196639
Bengaluru: Even though Karnataka is a pioneer in implementing the Food Safety and Standards Act with measures like setting up the office of Food Safety Commissioner at state level, one of the common complaints heard against the department concerned is that it is very in-active. Even though numerous complaints regarding food adulteration, sale of sub standard food materials is heard in the state, till now no action has been initiated by this authority against the offenders. Even though this authority has been set up under the State Health and Family Welfare department, the government has been complacent in implementing this Act.
But with the arrival of Subodh Yadav as the new commissioner of the Department of Health and Family Welfare, fast paced changes have been reported in the implementation of the provisions of FSSA, 2006. After suspending a couple of inefficient senior officials who were supervising the implementation of FSSA, Yadav has come up with various initiatives to make food safer to eat.
One of the common complaints heard from general public till now was that there was no proper channel or office to lodge complaints of food adulteration, substandard food items etc. But henceforth, a WhatsApp message to 9482196639 is enough for departmental action. General public can send videos, photos to this WhatsApp number and the department has promised to initiate action immediately.
‘Plastic egg’ scare: samples lifted
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) officials have lifted 161 samples of eggs sold in the markets here on Monday and Tuesday.
The action follows reports of ‘plastic eggs’ seized in West Bengal.
The samples will be sent for examination to a government certified laboratory.
“Egg samples were collected in the wake of rumours on artificial eggs detected in some parts of the country. While 94 samples were collected on Monday, 67 were lifted on Tuesday. The samples were taken from retailers and wholesale traders in the district,” said O.L.S. Vijay, designated officer of FSSAI in Coimbatore.
The lifted samples include various types of eggs available in the market including the popular White Leghorn and eggs of desi birds.
Officials here had received two complaints from consumers who alleged that artificial egg with plastic presence were being sold in market.
One complaint was from a resident of Saravanampatti in March, the other was from a resident of Masakalipalayam near Singanallur in April.
Officials said that fake alerts being spread on social media could have triggered such complaints.
Egg price was very much lower than the possible cost of producing artificial eggs which will require highly sophisticated technology.
Production of eggs in the State was much higher than the total requirement, they added.
Officers scramble for plastic eggs, chicken out at last
Officials conducted checks across Chennai on Tuesday.
CHENNAI: Their instructions were unlike anything they had heard: shake the egg, tap it, smell it, hold it against the light, and, if suspicious, crack it.
As videos of plastic eggsbeing sold in Kerala continue to do the rounds even after scientists in the neighbouring state dismissed them as rumours, food safety officialshere have received a dozen calls from the public claiming the eggs they bought were artificial.
To allay their fears, food safety officers fanned out in bustling markets in Anna Nagar, Mylapore, T Nagar and Velachery on Monday and Tuesday to 'test' if the eggs sold by retailers were real. Some were cracked in the shops. Around seven were brought to the government labs for testing. Two were given by residents who had alerted officials. They had carefully saved the shells lined on the inside with, what they claimed, was a thin plastic wrapper.
"They said it burnt like plastic and smelt like it too," said R Kathiravan, designated officer of Tamil Nadu Food Safety and Drug Administration, Chennai. He said it was just the shell membrane. "There's a lot of alarm after these videos started doing the rounds. People have started paying a lot more attention to an egg's anatomy," he said. The other eggs officials pocketed were found to be rotten and not plastic.
Lying between the eggshell and egg white are two transparent protein membranes - inner and outer membrane - that protect the egg against bacterial invasion. Veterinarians say these strong layers are made partly of keratin, a protein that's also in human hair.
In October, reports on 'Chinese fake eggs' had surfaced in Kerala after a regional TV news channel 'exposed' the fake eggs being sold in markets in Idukki district. What followed was a series of videos showing consumers claiming the eggs they bought were hard to crack and the omelettes they made using these were hard and rubbery. Food safety officials collected samples from across the state, only to find they were all real. Similar videos surfaced in West Bengal too, sending officials there on a wild goose chase.
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