Oct 9, 2017
19k l of synthetic milk for making Diwali sweets destroyed
Agra: In a major crackdown, as much as 19,000 litre of synthetic milk was destroyed by the Food Safety and Drug Administration department (FSDA) here. The synthetic milk was bought in the city for making sweets for the festive season.
An FSDA team intercepted a tanker with synthetic milk with a market value of over Rs 1 lakh at the time of checking near Saiyan toll plaza.
Talking with TOI, Shweta Saini, designated officer, FSDA, said, “We are regularly sending our teams to inspect food items to ensure pure and safe supply of consumable items in the city during the festival season. We have lodged a complaint against the owner of this synthetic milk and sent a sample to a laboratory for testing. Action will be taken against the owner in accordance with the sample report.”
Another FSDA team has been deployed to collect sample of sweets from mithai shops in Tajganj.
According to FSDA sources, there is not much difference between “real” milk and its synthetic variant, except that the former nourishes and the other kills. They taste and look so similar that one fails to detect the difference.
Synthetic milk is prepared with vegetable refined oil, mixed with emulsifier and then poured slowly into a wide-mouthed container. The two are mixed to acquire the form of a thick white paste and with the addition of water, the paste gets the density similar to that of milk. Sodium sulphate, glucose, maltose, detergent are then dissolved in hot water.
Recent raids elsewhere in UP have revealed use of different chemicals like titanium oxide to manufacture synthetic milk.
Experts in the field said the ingredients that go in the making of synthetic milk are calculated to match fat and SNF (solids not fat). This way it passes the tests. This kind of sophistication involves scientific knowhow. Chemicals are evolving every four to five years. Such rapid changes mean that these artificial products fail the fairly elementary tests conducted in the smaller centres. Newer chemicals that have the ability to defy researches and tests conducted at village level dairy cooperative societies are added to the synthetic milk.
FSDA plans crackdown on adulterated food items this festive season
Meerut: With Diwali around the corner, the Food Safety and Drugs Administration (FSDA) has started working on ensuring that city residents do not fall prey to adulterated sweets and other food items consumed during the festive season. Officials said that from Monday, FSDA teams will conduct surprise inspections at shops in rural and urban areas to crack down on food adulteration. The drive will continue till October 21.
“A six-member food department team will be raiding sweet shops and sending suspicious food items to laboratory for testing. People selling substandard stuff will have to face action,” said Archana Dheeran, designated food officer.
Samples of suspicious food items will be sent to the food testing laboratory in Lucknow to rule out the possibility of any wrongdoing at the city-based lab. In case if a food item looks too suspicious, it will be sent to the city lab and an immediate report, which arrives within 48 hours, will be sought. The reports of samples sent to Lucknow take at least 20 days.
Officials said that some of the main items under scanner include milk, ghee, paneer and milk-based sweets. “Since our objective is to break the supply chain of adulterated food, efforts are being made to take samples from the factories which supply items to retail stores in the city,” said Sarvesh Mishra, chief food safety officer.
Customers can file complaints related to food adulteration with the department anonymously. If any resident is apprehensive about a certain food item that he has already purchased, he can send it for testing to the food department personally. The sample can be submitted by depositing Rs 1,000 and if found adulterated, a complaint can be filed with FSDA officials. One can even test the food items at home as directed in the manual available at the FSDA office.
Twelve booked for food adulteration in city
In other raids, licences of 8 medical shops were cancelled
Krishna district Collector B. Lakshmikantham on Sunday warned traders against sale of adulterated food items and said stringent action would be initiated against those found guilty.
He said cases were booked against 12 persons following raids by officials of the food safety wing and food samples were sent to the lab for verification of their quality.
He said samples of the ingredients used in the laddu given as prasadam to the devotees visiting the Kanaka Durga temple atop Indrakeeladri hill such as ghee, dry fruits like raisins, cardamom, almonds, nutmeg and sugar were sent for lab testing.
He said based on the report, action would be initiated against those found guilty.
Penalties
Mr. Lakshmikantham said for malpractices, cases were booked against 20 traders and a sum of ₹2.88 lakh was collected from them towards stamping fees and ₹1.17 lakh towards compound fee in addition to seizing 404.93 quintals of rice worth over ₹9 lakh from fair price shops.
He said in separate raids conducted by the Drug Control wing officials, licences of eight medical shops were cancelled for selling medicines that had crossed expiry dates and for other violations.
They were Om Sivasai Medical and General Stores in Chittinagar, Mehbub Medical and Fancy Stores at Lambadipet, Apollo Pharmacy at Bhavanipuram, Srisai Diabetic Medical Stores at Gandhinagar, Sri Venkateswara Medical and Fancy Stores at Giripuram, Lakshmi Medical and Fancy Stores at Patamata, Sri Krishna Medical and Home Needs at Kamayathopu Centre and Srinivasa Medical and Fancy stores at Nandigama.
Spurious food threat to public health
Severe manpower crunch in Food Safety branch of Health Department hinders monitoring of food quality
Guwahati, Oct 8: At a time when incidences of food adulteration in the State are on the rise, the Health Department’s Food Safety branch tasked with monitoring food quality in the market is ill-equipped to handle the situation.
Owing to severe manpower shortage, the Food Safety branch has been almost rendered redundant even as its skeletal staff are hard-pressed to discharge their duties.
Of the total sanctioned posts of 59, as many as 21 posts are currently lying vacant.
In fact, sources pointed out that the actual requirement for sanctioned posts is much higher considering the State’s burgeoning population. “Our actual district-wise staff requirement is much more. But, now even many existing sanctioned posts are lying vacant,” a source said.
And not without reason. As per rules, a designated officer of rank not below Sub-divisional Officer should be appointed in each district. But the State’s 33 districts have only 5 sanctioned posts of Designated Officers, of which 4ur are currently vacant.
Requirement for officials in each district is much more than the current sanctioned strength. For instance, Kamrup (Metro) district does not have any sanctioned post of Senior Food Safety Officer. And there are only two sanctioned posts of Food Safety Officers in the district, which is considered “insufficient” by the sources.
Even the existing strength has not been filled up for some years now, the sources confirmed. Of the total sanctioned posts of 18 Senior Food Safety Officers, 7 are vacant. Similarly, out of 36 sanctioned posts of Food Safety Officers, 10 are vacant.
The Food Safety branch is tasked with conducting periodic checks of food quality like whether these conform to safety norms set by the government from time to time. Its staff is mandated to conduct tests of food samples collected from the market. But with severe manpower shortage, it is anybody’s guess as to how things are currently functioning in the State, though the branch claims of doing its best under severe constraints.
And the information definitely does not augur well for a State as it comes at a time when reports of substandard and spurious food often emanate from different areas.
Sources fear public health may be compromised to greater degree in coming days as chemicals proven to be carcinogenic like calcium carbide are rampantly being used in fruits and vegetables, while those tasked with monitoring food quality are hamstrung to discharge their duties.
FSW Peren destroys unsafe food items
Food Safety Wing (FSW) Peren district under the aegis of the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and Food Safety Officer (FSO) in collaboration with the Peren district Administration, Sanitary Inspector, dobashi and youth representative Jalukie town conducted inspection of food businesses at Jalukie town under section 38 (1) of the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA) 2006 on August 9.
In a press note by District Media Officer, CMO office Peren, Pezanguno Celine Secii stated that, altogether six food items had been seized from four shops for selling the products beyond “best before dates”.
In this connection, in exercise of section 38 clause 4 of the FSSA, the seized items had been destroyed on September 8 at the Chief Medical Office premises, new Headquarter, Peren.
State to act tough on using printed paper to pack food
Food for thought: Officials are empowered to penalise fines ranging from ₹200 for street vendors to ₹1,000 for hotels.
In 2016, FSSAI called printed paper a food hazard that could lead to toxicity
Whether it is churumuri given in a neat cone of crisp paper at Cubbon Park or fried snacks from the neighbourhood food stall given on textbook sheets, cut squares of newspapers and other printed papers are near ubiquitous as packaging material.
However, a crackdown on this is set to begin as the Food Safety Commissionerate, Karnataka, is gearing up to enforce a ban on the use of newspapers for packing or serving food.
Around two months ago, the Commissionerate issued an order to “prohibit the storage, distribution or sale of food article wrapped or packed in newspaper and other printed material” in city municipal limits, including Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangaluru and Hubballi-Dharwad, among others.
The order, passed on July 18, follows a directive by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), which in 2016 called printed paper as a “food hazard” that could lead to cancer-related health complications and toxicity.
“The concern is the entry of these inks and chemicals into the body over a long period of time,” said Harshavardhan B., Joint Commissioner, Food Safety Commissionerate.
A challenge
As the experience of banning plastic packaging shows, implementation is a daunting challenge. The Commissionerate has around 20 food safety officers for the whole city, where there are an estimated 1.5 lakh street vendors with tens of thousands of restaurants too.
“For the first year, we want to create awareness. There is no point slapping fine when people do not know the harmful effects of using newspapers. Thereafter, we plan to start an awareness intensive drive where issues around newspaper, use of colourants and cheap chemical-laden sauces are told to street vendors,” said Dr. Harshavardhan. That said, the Commissionerate is empowered to penalise — if the vendor is found to be repeatedly violating notices given — fines that range from ₹200 (for street vendors) to more than ₹1,000 for hotels.
“The key is to offer vendors an alternative. Banana leaves are a viable healthier, environmentally-friendly alternative to newspapers. It is not expensive,” he added.
The change in serving style will happen over time, said Rangaswamy C.E. of Beedi Badi Vyapari Sanghatane, who welcomed the move. “Street vendors will cooperate as they do not want to get a bad name in selling unsafe food. We are currently doing a survey of street vendors and we will educate them on this too,” he said.
Bring a ban on serving oily foodstuff on newspaper, demands Sena corporator Chemburkar
Mumbai: Shiv Sena corporator Ashish Chemburkar has requested Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to ban serving oily and fried foodstuff on newspapers. He made this demand on the basis of scientific evidence that the ink used in the newspapers can be poisonous.
FSSAI (Food, Safety and Standard Authority of India) has also warned people against consuming fried food that is served on newspapers. This is mainly because this ink is made up of graphite which can be poisonous for human consumption. An advisory from FSSAI on the topic goes on to say, “Printing inks may also contain harmful colours, pigments, binders, additives, and preservatives. Besides chemical contaminants, presence of pathogenic micro organisms in used newspapers also poses potential risk to human health.”
As the practice is harming the health of Mumbaikars, Chemburkar has sought to have it banned. He has also suggested milk paper or tissue paper as the alternative serving medium for these foods.
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