Apr 30, 2017
Call to put an end to adulteration in sago
A forceful appeal to put an end to adulteration in the production of sago, in the interest of protecting tapioca farmers, was made at the farmers’ grievances redress day meeting held here on Friday.
District Collector M. Asia Mariam presided over the meeting.
K. Sundaram, general secretary, Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam, alleged that a few manufacturers were adulterating sago with maize flour. While a 90 kg bag of sago fetches a price between Rs. 5,500 and Rs. 6,000; the price of maize flour ranges between Rs. 1,500 and Rs. 2,000 per bag.
While the manufacturers by adopting this illegal practice manage to make good profit, it leads to steep fall in its price.
Mr. Sundaram said that the sago manufactured in the district is transported to Gujarat and Maharashtra. Tamil Nadu manufacturers faced the danger of losing the business, if the trading community of these States come to know about the poor quality of sago due to adulteration.
He urged the Food Safety and Drug Administration Department officials to initiate stringent action against the sago manufacturers indulging in adulteration.
Ms. Asia Mariam warned that stringent action will be taken against people who involved in adulteration. The food safety department officials will conduct regular check of sago manufacturing units, she added.
‘Revive open wells’
Farmers belonging to various associations urged the district administration to take steps for sanctioning financial assistance for rehabilitation of open farm wells. Many farm wells were in a poor shape due to improper maintenance, they said and demanded financial assistance for strengthening the retention walls.
Some of the farmers representatives alleged that the officials of primary agricultural cooperative banks were forcing the hapless farmers to procure poor quality fertilizers stocked with them. These officials are also sanctioning loans only for certain crops, they said and urged the district administration to direct the cooperative societies to sanction loans to all varieties of crops raised by the farmers.
Ms. Asia Mariam assured that steps will be taken to ensure that farm loans were sanctioned only to crops that have been raised by the farmers. The cooperative societies will also be directed to procure and distribute good quality fertilizers.
Turmeric farmers alleged that the price of turmeric crop raised by the farmers of the district has suffered a steep fall due to the arrival of the same in huge quantity from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
They demanded the State government to slap a ban on the arrival of raw turmeric from other States.
When farmers raised the issue of permission for lifting silt from the dry bed of the water bodies, the Collector said that 10 dry lakes have been identified in the district for this purpose and permission will be accorded to the farmers soon.
WARNING: Energy drinks worse, more dangerous than caffeine, says study!
Energy drinks have always been a subject of deep debate over its health properties. Those who indulge in it, swear by its 'healthier' properties compared to sodas and other caffeinated drinks.
However, a new study has completely negated this belief saying that energy drinks are worse than caffeine itself.
Elaborating on its findings, the study says that energy drinks can have a greater impact on health than caffeine consumption by other means.
Researchers discovered that ingesting about a litre of any commercially-available energy drink caused abnormal changes in blood pressure and heart rate of the study's participants. These changes were apparently missing when volunteers consumed a control drink that contained the same amount of caffeine.
Each energy drink available commercially is packed with 108 grams of sugar and 320 mg of caffeine. As per experts, the requisite and/or maximum amount of caffeine an adult should consume is approximately 400 mg. Energy drinks also contain “natural substances” such as taurine, ginseng, and carnitine.
According to the Daily Mail, the research study found that the impact from drinking a non-sugar caffeinated beverage, such as coffee, didn’t have such an effect on the heart.
Research author Dr Emily Fletcher, of the David Grant USAF Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base in California, said, “We decided to study energy drinks’ potential heart health impact because previous research has shown 75 percent of the base’s military personnel have consumed an energy drink. And nearly 15 percent of military personnel, in general, drink three cans a day when deployed, which is more than we studied here,” the Telegraph reported.
For the study, 18 participants were divided into two groups. The first group received 946 ml of energy drinks, while the second group drank a control drink, which contained 320 mg of caffeine, 40 ml of lime juice, and 140 ml of cherry syrup (sugar).
The heart activity and blood pressure of the participants were monitored after every 2, 4 and 6 hours post the energy drink consumption, with follow-up examinations taking place after 24 hours.
According to the Inquistr, the energy drink group showed signs that their heart was “pausing” for 10 milliseconds in between beats. While 10 milliseconds is not significant, it would be much more pronounced if you drank three, four, or even five energy drinks in a short time.
According to NBC News, Dr Fletcher noted that some medications increase the risk for the heart to pause up to six milliseconds, but they have warnings on the medicine bottle. However, there is no warning on energy drinks that caution consumers that it could increase blood pressure.
“Those who consumed the energy drinks still had a mildly elevated blood pressure after six hours,” Dr Fletcher said. “This suggests that ingredients other than caffeine may have some blood pressure altering effects, but this needs further evaluation.”
Meanwhile, Gavin Partington, director general of the British Soft Drinks Association, told the Daily Mail: 'Caffeine in energy drinks is no different to caffeine in coffee so these findings are somewhat odd.
"The European Food Safety Authority latest opinion confirms the safety of energy drinks and their ingredients and therefore does not provide any scientific justification to treat energy drinks any differently to the main contributors to daily caffeine intake including tea, coffee and chocolate.
"It's also worth remembering that coffees from popular high street chains contain the same or more caffeine than most energy drinks."
Love chicken? You might be vulnerable to diseases. Here's why
Experts say the chicken you eat from these places, especially the broiler variant, is often pumped with large amounts of antibiotics and eating the meat can make a consumer resistant to drugs and leave him or her vulnerable to diseases.
An investigation by Mail Today into the poultry business in Haryana's Sonipat, Panipat and Karnal districts exposed the unethical practices indulged in by certain farm owners for profit.
"Our hatchery division produces 15,000 chicks every day and as soon as they are hatched, they are injected with antibiotic drugs to make them infection free," Sehrawat, manager of a poultry farm in Karnal, says on camera.
THREAT OF INFECTION
Since the birds are tightly packed in cages, the threat of infection always looms. This necessitates the use of antibiotics to promote growth. "We have to grow them at a rapid pace. So we use steroids for overall physical growth," said Sehrawat.
With rampant use, the drugs find their way into the chicken we eat as well as the ecosystem, leading to the spread of drug resistant bacteria in human beings, experts say. "Antibiotics such as enrofloxacin and sulfonamides are used recklessly in the Indian poultry industry to treat infections that arise due to the unhygienic and overcrowded establishments they are maintained in," said Dr Amulya VR, a veterinarian based in Hyderabad.
ANTIBIOTICS
Nearly 70 per cent of antibiotics vital for fighting infections in humans are sold for use in meat and dairy production and medical researchers have concerns that overuse of those drugs may diminish their effectiveness in fighting disease in humans.
In fact, the United Nations has asked India to urgently address the growing issue of antimicrobial resistance in the country due to indiscriminate use of antibiotics.
"While the government is regulating the use of antibiotics in humans, it remains unorganised in the livestock sector," said Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, head and neck cancer surgeon at Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai. "Consuming antibiotic- resistance-laden livestock can influence the bacterial flora of the human body and create the bacterial strain that is resistant to. So if you have infection - in the lungs, blood or stomach - it could become incurable. The steroids can lead to suppression of immunity and pileup extra kilos."
THE STUDY
A study conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on broiler chicken about three years ago found that 40 per cent of the samples were contaminated with antibiotic residue. Six most common antibiotics used in poultry business are oxytetracycline, chlortetracycline and doxycycline (from class tetracyclines); enrofloxacin and ciprofloxacin (from fluoroquinolones); and neomycin, an aminoglycoside. "The prime reason for misuse is that the conditions in which the chicken are raised are largely unsanitary, leading to high infection and mortality rates. For commercial reasons, the farmers would like to avoid such a scenario," said Amit Khurana, programme manager, food safety and toxins at CSE. "Another reason is to fatten the broiler without much feed."
Along with concerns over human health comes the issue of animal cruelty. TheMail Todayinvestigation has found that the hens in these Haryana poultry farms are kept in tiny metal "battery cages", where they spend their lives in violation of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. The birds are injected with growth hormones, impregnated forcefully or even crushed alive, if it is a rooster, as roosters are regarded as less lucrative for trade.
It takes around 40 days for a chick to grow into a hen weighing around 1.5kgs to 2kgs and deliver eggs. Sunil, the manager of a farm in Gharauda in Karnal said that they use 12 kinds of "powders" made of chemical and biological substances including gelatin in the feed to make the chicken deliver eggs faster.
We mix these powders in the prescribed ratio with the food grain. Once the hens consume it they will be ready to deliver eggs in the next 16 to 20 hours. A normal hen can deliver two to three eggs in 24 hours," said Sunil.
Ambika Nijjar, animal rights activist and lawyer, describes the process of artificial insemination. "They first spread the legs of a rooster and pinch the sperm out. They then spread the legs of the female, open the vagina and insert the semen with a dropper. It is a very painful process for both, and in almost every bird we inspected, we found that they had swollen and infected genitalia."
The total egg production in the country for the year 2016-17 was 29.09 billion according to the Integrated Sample Survey, with Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal and Haryana being the top five egg producing states.
Artificially ripened mangoes destroyed
Vadodara: In wake of a Gujarat high court order directing state authorities to take strict action against traders using carbide and harmful chemicals to artificially ripen fruits, like mangoes, the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) food safety officers renewed efforts to destroy such mangoes. The officers destroyed 440kg mangoes that included 360kg ripened artificially on Saturday.The officials checked 40 godowns and 25 shops in the Khanderao Market on Saturday. The vendors were instructed to adhere to the directives of the high court.
They were also warned that strict action would be taken against them if they were found using artificial ripeners.Taking suo motu cognizance of a TOI report about raid by civic body officials on such fruit vendors, a bench headed by the HC Chief Justice had issued notice to the state government and all seven municipal corporations of Gujarat, and asked them to state what actions they have taken to curb the practice.
Authentication of organic products a mess
However, 28 certification bodies approved by APEDA, each with different manuals, has made it a messy affair. While APEDA has laid out broad guidelines for certification of organic produce which have to be adhered for export of produce, there is no regulation for the domestic market.
According to the international Competence Centre for Organic Agriculture (CCOA), Karnataka has 93,963 hectares of land either certified or in the process of certification as being organic in nature. Karnataka is third in production, with 2.82 lakh tonnes of food being considered organic.
Farmer producer organisations said certification is provided for Rs 35,000 per organisation. "We pay Rs 35,000 for certification from the Karnataka State Organic Certification Agency (KSOCA) for getting our produce authenticated as organic. The certification is for three years," Krupa T, president, Chitradurga and Davanagere Organic Farmers Federation, said.
The federation has 40 organisations with 3,800 farmers as members. When asked o whether the certification agency gives its seal of approval to every farmer's produce, Krupa said it is for the organisation. "The certification is meant for organisation which take the responsibility of the organic produce," Krupa said.
According to APEDA, this is known as the peer group certification, which mean there is no individual audit of every farmer's produce. Further, while a section of farmers under the Karnataka government scheme of organic farming has secured certification from KSOCA, the same federation also has members under the central government scheme of Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) who have certification from the Rajasthan Organic Certification Agency (ROCA).
Whether the change in certification causes differences in quality checks, Krupa said the federation had not considered such this situation. Certification industry professionals said the entire process of certifying organic produce is based on the consumer or the buyer.
"Certification is primarily based on the consumer due to multiple number of agencies. If there is an export market, the European Union (EU) and the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has specific certification bodies that need to ratify for their countries. At the local level, there is no standard criterion," said a professional associated with a major certification agency.
Admitting that the Centre is yet to approve domestic certification guidelines, APEDA deputy general manager R Ravindra said the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on March 30 released a draft notice on certifying organic food in the domestic market which will provide stringent regulations to sell within the country.
Andhra woman allegedly finds coal pieces in Tirupati laddu, complains to TTD
A woman devotee who visited the Sri Venkateswara temple atop Tirumala, has alleged that she found pieces of coal in the famous Tirupati laddu.
The Deccan Chronicle reported that the woman, identified as Devabhaktuni Yamini of Lakshmipuram village in Krishna District, noticed the coal on Friday, as she was about to eat the laddu.
The DC report adds that the TTD staff allegedly asked her if she was Christian, when she went to submit a written complaint, and insisted on a receipt.
This comes two weeks after reports that the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), the governing body of the temple, may soon have to apply for a central license to run its kitchen, after orders from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
The Hindu had earlier reported that the FSSAI also asked the Central Licensing Authority in Chennai to inspect the ‘pottu’ used in preparing the temple’s famous laddus.
This order came after an RTI application by a Bengaluru-based activist in December last year.
This would mean that the TTD would have to follow regulations of the Food Safety Standards Act.
At the time, it was reported that Director of Food Safety Management System (FSMS), Suneeti Toteja, wrote a letter which read, “The applicability of the Act is not affected whether the food is purchased or distributed free of cost. TTD therefore has to obtain a licence and fulfil all responsibilities of an FBO as stipulated in Section 23 of the FSS Act.”
In his compliant, the RTI activist reportedly wrote, “The cooks who are in preparation of these laddus in large quantity are found wearing no proper dress. They are working in half naked dress and found sweating due to heavy heat at the kitchen. These cooks are not wearing any hand glove, apron and other safety norms.”
The laddu is a major source of the TTD’s revenue and adds several crore rupees to its annual budget. It is made with flour, sugar, ghee, oil, cardamom and dry fruits.
However, objects like iron pins, key chains and even gutka packets have been previously found in the laddus.
In 2016, a total of 10.46 crore laddus, were sold as ‘prasadam’. In its 2017 budget, the TTD stated that the sale of laddus was expected to fetch Rs 165 crore.
In 2015, the laddu entered its 300th year.
Temple officials say the sacred offering was introduced on August 2, 1715.
The laddu is in great demand on special occasions. The authorities sell the prasad round the clock during Brahmotsavam.
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