Jul 20, 2017
Dengue prevention drive in hotels, restaurants
An official from FSSAI checking water stored at a hotel in the city on Wednesday.
FSSAI officials check whether storage of water is done in proper manner
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has swung into action to back the efforts by the Health Department to combat dengue.
FSSAI officials have started inspecting restaurants and small hotels to ensure that storage of water is done in proper manner.
Officials are also checking to ensure contaminated water is not used for cooking and drinking purposes.
“Based on directions from superiors, food safety officers are conducting inspections at hotels, mainly to ensure safe storage of water. Other than aiding mosquito breeding, contaminated water can cause for other illnesses,” said O.L.S. Vijay, Designated Officer, FSSAI, Coimbatore.
Hotels have been asked to not to store water for longer days as it may lead to contamination. During visits, hoteliers have been instructed to store the water in containers covering them with a fitting lid.
“Hoteliers have been asked to clean underground water storage tanks at frequent intervals. Use of bleaching powder is advised for cleaning. They are also instructed not to serve water stored for more than three days for drinking and cooking purposes,” said Dr. Vijay.
Food safety officers are also checking whether storage systems are turning breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
As part of increasing awareness among public, food safety officials are also pasting posters in hotels on safe storage of water and prevention of mosquito breeding.
ANIMAL WELFARE BOARD ASKS COPS TO ACT AGAINST TEMPLE SLAUGHTER
With temples scattered across Pune district, action against animal slaughter has been hard to eradicate completely
City officer has written to PMC, police chief and others, decrying open sacrifices, especially during religious festivals
Pune-based animal welfare board officer Meher Mathrani has written to various administrative bodies in the city, including the police commissioner, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) commissioner, chief secretary of Maharashtra, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the Animal Husbandry department and Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations (FIAPO) to take action against temples engaging in public slaughter of animals for religious purposes. The letter highlighted how animal sacrifice flouts several norms, including Slaughter House Rules, 2001 and the Prevention of Cruelty Act, 1960.
The open sacrifice right before the month of Shravan also has temples where people cook the meat within the premises and distribute among devotees. This, according to the letter, goes disregarded by the police. It also spoke of how the meat goes unchecked by vets and is still consumed by humans. The letter requested authorities to hand out memos to people to sensitise them to these issues.
“Sacrifice affects children who are continuously exposed to cruelty to animals. It is visually extremely disturbing and desensitises the child, who subsequently grows up to be a desensitised adult. With all the strife we see on a daily basis, we must encourage compassion and sensitivity. It is the duty of government agencies to enforce laws, rather than leave it to NGOs and activists who face a lot of danger when trying to stop such sacrifices. We cannot be a smart city if we ignore these issues,” said Mathrani, animal welfare officer (h) and head, Action for Animals against Cruelty and Trauma (AaCT), India.
Responding to her plea, assistant police commissioner (special branch) Ravindra Rasal, said, “We always ensure that police stations around the vicinity educate temple authorities to not engage in public slaughter of animals. The slaughter should take place only at a registered slaughterhouse. If we get complaints, we will act against the temple or the group, but it is not possible to keep a check on all temples. Also, this becomes a sensitive matter since it pertains to religion.”
Speaking to Mirror, animal rights activist Manoj Oswal said, “The process of banning slaughter cannot happen at the spur of the moment. One cannot suddenly ask devotees to stop a practice that has been going on for long. Since it involves religious sentiment, even police intervention becomes difficult. This will require prior planning and a threelayered process. First, we speak to the temple trustees and explain the religious importance of banning slaughter. Without their cooperation, we will not be able to proceed. Once we convince them, we speak to local authorities like the police who create a detailed plan. This would include a geographical map of which temples within their jurisdiction practice public slaughter. The court orders are presented to them and we try to convince them legally. The final stage includes the process of spreading awareness among the public. Pune district is a difficult place - temples are sporadically distributed and mass slaughter does not occur. This is why we have not been able to stop them completely.”
On Monday, a police complaint was filed at Vimantal police station against a temple opposite Symbiosis institute, which had kept a goat to be slaughtered for sacrifice the next day. The temple caretakers said that it was unfair to target only them and get the police involved.
Police claim ambiguity on ban of gutka, fail to act on seizure
Trichy: An 'ambiguity' over the ban on chewable tobacco kept the police in a state of confusion and inaction despite seizing a vehicle with a consignment of the stuff on Wednesday afternoon. The question which baffled them was: Was gutka and chewable tobacco banned across the state or merely within 100 metres of educational institutions and hospitals ?
It was a usual vehicle check by the cops near Uyyakondan Thirumalai on Vayaloor road which led to the seizure of 1.2 tonnes of banned chewable tobacco from a minivan around noon. The vehicle was intercepted by the police as it was found carrying the chewable tobacco product in 30 bags, each weighing 40 kgs, from a godown in Kavalkaranpatti on the outskirts of Trichy to the city.
The vehicle and its driver were brought to the government hospital police station. Enquiries with the driver revealed that it was being brought for supply to shops in the city. It may be pointed out that the state government had passed a GO on May 23 including chewable tobacco in the list of banned tobacco products. Unfortunately, the police were unaware of this government order that banned the sale of the stuff that they seized. There was confusion as to whether it was banned across the state or merely within 100 metres of educational institutions and hospitals. As a consequence, the police were even reluctant to show the tobacco to the mediapersons citing possible legal consequences. They summoned the owner of the godown and the vehicle.
"We are seeking legal opinion to further proceed in the case because we need to make it clear that we have the authority to take action in the case," said sub-inspector of police, S Gopal. However, food safety and drug administration department which has been entrusted with powers to seize such products and prosecute the carriers was clear that all chewable tobacco products are in Tamil Nadu.
"There is no doubt that chewable tobacco is banned in Tamil Nadu. The police can take action if they have seized them. In case of receiving information, we have the authority to destroy them and take legal action on the person who possessed them," designated officer (DO), food safety, Trichy Dr R Senthilkumar told TOI. However, both the police officials as well as food safety officers in the food safety department expressed their inability to act on such violations due to the unclear instructions from their higher officials about the list of banned tobacco products. The police remained mute spectators on the seizure till evening.
The draft laws for organic foods, if cleared, will adversely affect small farmers
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s new certification regulation is going to hinder the growth of the sector. Instead of targeting small farmers, why not make laws that require mandatory labelling of foods grown with pesticides, chemicals or GMO etc?
If a small farmer has to get a National Programme for Organic Production certification, which is what the Draft Food and Standards (Organic Food) Regulations, 2017, is proposing, it will make her product expensive and so uncompetitive
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) recently announced the Draft Food and Standards (Organic Food) Regulations, 2017, aimed at curbing sale of fake organic products. This regulation will require products sold in the market as “organic” to be certified by either the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) of the commerce and industry ministry, or the Participatory Guarantee Scheme (PGS) of the agriculture ministry.
The NPOP was designed for the export market and involves third-party companies, which verify organic status, while in PGS, a collective of farmers guarantee that everyone in the group is practicing organic farming. The draft, however, exempts ‘unprocessed’ organic food sold directly by farmers or farmer organisations to consumers.
On the face of it, this looks like an excellent regulation, with a promise of protecting consumers’ rights. But an analysis shows that it cannot curb sales of fake organic products, and it might do more harm than good to the organic farming movement in India.
The demand for a regulation on organics itself is suspect, as it is led by the Crop Care Federation of India (CCFI), which represents pesticide companies. In December 2014, CCFI released a report, prepared by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), on pesticides in organic vegetables from Delhi. Interestingly, IARI has not made this report public.
The institute tested 150 vegetable samples from one organic store in Delhi and found traces in 50; in 10 of these, the levels were above the maximum residue limit (MRL). The store identified a certified farm in Sonipat as the source of the vegetables. The farm was certified by one of the largest NPOP certifiers.
To begin with, sampling from one store from one city is scientifically untenable. Second, finding small traces of pesticides in organic vegetables is not surprising because pesticides are present in water and air, and will find their way into a produce even if the farmer is practicing organic farming. This is why many countries prescribe a tolerance limit for presence of pesticides in organic products. Third, the 10 samples in which levels exceeded the MRL were sourced from a certified farm – which means certification cannot be an answer to the problem.
Let us accept that fake organic products do exist. But the scale is difficult to ascertain till we have a pan-India study on it. Second, a fake organic product is not a safety concern; it is an issue of ‘misbranding’ or ‘misleading advertisement’. Fake products can be as safe or unsafe as any other products sold in markets. So the question is: Is certification required to tackle misbranding?
The FSSAI has a definition of and penalty for misbranding of food and misleading advertisements. The penalty for misbranding is up to Rs 3 lakh and for misleading advertisement, up to Rs 10 lakh. The food safety act does not specify that to prevent misbranding or misleading advertisement, a product has to have a certification. Why, then, are organic products being singled out?
To understand how this new regulation impact farmers, one must examine the certification itself. First, both NPOP and PGS are process-based certification systems. Their main concern is processes and practices of farming and food-processing, not testing food for pesticide residues. The former (NPOP) being more expensive than PGS, is preferred by big farmers, companies and exporters.
Under NPOP, only the produce of a NPOP-certified farm can be processed by a NPOP-certified processor and sold as ‘organic’. The NPOP processor cannot take fresh produce from a PGS farmer, process it and sell it as ‘organic’.
Under PGS, only the food processed by the PGS group of farmers can be labelled as ‘organic’. The problem: PGS groups, run by small farmers, are not capable of processing organic produce. They sell their produce to other processors for value addition.
The draft regulation will make it difficult for small farmers, who are either PGS certified or non-certified, to sell their produce for value addition. They will be forced to sell fresh produce directly to consumers or get NPOP certification.
If a small farmer gets NPOP certification, it makes his product more expensive and so uncompetitive. If he sells only fresh produce, his value addition is low. So the draft regulation will dissuade small farmers from doing organic farming.
The Indian organic farming movement is witnessing a revival, largely led by small farmers. Consumer numbers are on the rise. This has happened without any support from the government. In fact, in 2017-18, the outlay on organic farming is a mere Rs 350 crore; in comparison, the annual subsidy for chemical fertilisers is over Rs 70,000 crore.
But the FSSAI’s regulation is going to hinder its growth. Instead of targeting organic food, why not make laws that require mandatory labelling of foods grown with pesticides, chemicals or GMO etc?
If the FSSAI is so anxious about fake organic products, it should set standards and use its ‘misbranding’ provision to penalise them. Like it does for every other food product.
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