Nov 2, 2017
Food Safety: On every menu in India
Last few decades not only witnessed a change in our eating habits but how we store and consume food has also gone through a transformation. Rise in population and urbanisation has led to an increased demand for packaged food.\With the increase in working population, the need for on-the-go consumption has only gone up. At the same time, awareness about nutrition and health has become much stronger and penetrated deep into Indian consumers’ minds. On the regulatory side, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has been spreading awareness about issues related to food safety across the country, while also strengthening legislation to ensure that only safe food is made available to consumers, both by the producer as well as the industry.
FSSAI has also moved to a more comprehensive approach towards food safety instead of the erstwhile fragmented one. “You will see a quantum jump in the level of public confidence in food safety. As far as product standards are concerned, I can confidently say that we have a reasonably robust system,” says Pawan Agarwal, CEO, FSSAI.
Though Food Safety and Standards Act has completed 11 years of its enactment this year, FSSAI as an autonomous body was set up in 2008. And since then, the body has taken upon itself the challenge of creating a regulatory environment different from other countries, yet fit for the nuances of India. Compromised quality, increasing adulteration cases and instances of product integrity issues pose serious challenges to food safety.
Such issues can cause irreparable damage not just to individual health, but also to the reputation of brands that manufacture and market these products. With the advent of social media, companies have become even more prone to scrutiny, both from the government and from consumers as well.
There have been recent incidents of below-par food reaching the consumer and videos of the same spreading through social media have been widely circulated. Food safety therefore is the top concern of food and beverage manufacturers. And technology is playing a big role in ensuring that the product integrity is not compromised at any point during the value chain.
Tetra Pak India is one of the organizations that is leading the charge on making food safe and available to millions of Indians across the country. Their UHT (Ultra-High-Temperature) process and aseptic packaging systems kick-started the growth of UHT milk segment and other packaged drinks in India three decades ago. This technology eliminated the need for a cold chain during distribution, making fresh safe milk accessible to even the most remote and hard-to-reach areas across the country. The combination of UHT and aseptic packaging ensures that the food inside a carton is first ‘made’ safe and then ‘kept’ safe till it reaches the consumer.
But the challenge in a country as diverse as India does not end with creating the right solution. An even bigger challenge is to raise consumer awareness about the benefits of this technology. And that is one big focus area for Tetra Pak India.
Tetra Pak launched its 'Right to Keep Food Safe' initiative in October 2014. As part of the initiative, 15 mothers were selected as Safe Food Ambassadors (SFAs) who went on to drive the cause and spread the word about safe food practices.
Over the course of the campaign, Tetra Pak’s SFAs reached out to over 3,000 mothers across the country through workshops, seminars and social media platforms.
A recent digital campaign called 'Safe for Sure' educates consumers about the technology behind a carton of milk that makes it safe for consumption. The campaign drives home the message that UHT treated milk in six-layer Tetra Pak cartons is safe and needs no preservatives. This campaign has seen huge traction from consumers because it breaks many popular myths that surround carton milk and its safety.
Latest in the list of awareness initiatives is a campaign called ‘Safe and Nutritious Food’ which is being run jointly by FSSAI with support from Tetra Pak. Aimed at reaching out to children, their parents and teachers and arm them with information on the right nutrition choices and food safety, this campaign has reached out to over 100 schools, RWAs and other locations across South Delhi and Gurugram through interactive workshops.
“We are excited to be a part of this initiative with FSSAI. At Tetra Pak, together with our customers our most important agenda is to make food safe and available everywhere. Through campaigns like this, we intend to equip consumers with the right information on subjects like UHT milk and the benefits of aseptic technology that make carton milk safe and nutritious so that consumers can make informed choices,” says Tetra Pak’s MD for India, Kandarp Singh.
However, the application of technology in food safety goes beyond just the package and is impacting the F&B industry in more ways than one can imagine.
Take the example of how Tetra Pak is using digital technologies to support its F&B customers and brand owners. The term digitalisation may be rather broad, and may sound like an industry ‘buzzword’, but when applied wisely, it is in fact a mature, real and extremely disruptive solution for food and beverage manufacturers to mitigate food safety risks and help drive business growth.
Digitalisation is helping manufacturers manage these risks more effectively with a range of tools aimed at improving communications between employees and support teams, and improving access to data and analytics. This means that if food safety issues arise they can be resolved quickly and effectively without impacting production performance.
“At the core of everything we do at Tetra Pak is our vision to make food safe and available, everywhere. The Tetra Pak digital strategy, and digitalisation tools are making a difference to our customers’ daily operations and helping keep food safe,” added Kandarp Singh.
One key element of keeping product integrity intact, is to have full view of the product throughout the various processes. And this is being made possible using tools like the Tetra Pak PlantMaster which allows Tetra Pak experts to take full ownership of the product and ensure that it remains safe throughout the lifecycle.
Be it during production, processing, packaging or even distribution, food is an extremely fragile product to work with. The most minor error can cost consumers their health and can cost brands millions and even their reputation. As the proliferation of food brands in India increases, there is also need for greater diligence in ensuring that the food that reaches us is safe and of the best possible quantity. At the end of the day, it’s a collective responsibility for manufacturers and brand owners to bring the best to the consumer, and it is up to the consumer to make the best and most informed decision.
FSSAI plans ‘one nation, one food safety law’
Food safety regulator FSSAI seeks to standardize surveillance, sampling, inspection and testing across states to increase transparency
New Delhi: The concept of ‘one-nation, one-tax’ behind the goods and services tax (GST) implemented across the country seems to be influencing other organisations. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the country’s apex food regulator, is working on a ‘one-nation, one-food-safety-law’ so that every state-level food authority follows a standard practice for the implementation, compliance and surveillance of food safety regulations, which in turn will ensure smoother operations for food companies.
“The law has always been same for everyone. But there have been consistency issues at state level. Also, we need to standardize food testing laboratories. With ‘one-nation, one-food-safety-law’, we will be able to remove those and make things more transparent,” said Pawan Kumar Agarwal, chief executive officer, FSSAI.
Under the ‘one-nation, one food-safety-law’ regime, state-level food safety officers will have to follow a 10-point code-of-ethics set by FSSAI. “At present, there is no such thing, and food safety officers across states do things the way they think best. This should not be the practice. We need to standardize this,” said Agarwal.
Under the regime, FSSAI wants to erase discrepancies in food safety regulations across states, and standardize surveillance, sampling and inspection. “This is to enable states with good practices,” said Agarwal. Under the new regime, inspection and sampling will be monitored as everything will be “on the cloud” as part of the agenda to increase transparency, he added.
To bring consistency in food testing, FSSAI is introducing guidelines that food testing laboratories will have to abide by. Under the draft norms, laboratories will have to come under the Indian Food Laboratory Network (InFoLNet), a digital solution to connect all food labs in India to a centralised lab management system.
So far, 154 laboratories have listed on InFoLNet. FSSAI has made this compulsory for all FSSAI-notified laboratories. With this, details of all tests and the results will be available on this platform.
“In the past, there have been questions regarding authenticity of tests done by certain laboratories. Besides upgrading the laboratories, InFoLNet will abolish the discrepancies and ensure transparency,” said Agarwal.
The regulator, which owns and operates two laboratories and has approved 82 others in various states, allocated Rs482 crore earlier this year to strengthen the food testing infrastructure, including upgrading and modernizing laboratories. Besides, FSSAI will also set up 62 mobile testing labs. There are currently four mobile food testing labs in Punjab, Gujarat, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
In 2015, FSSAI questioned safety standards of Swiss packaged food company Nestle India Ltd’s Maggi instant noodles based on reports by one of its testing laboratories in Kolkata, prompting questions about the capacity and state of the laboratory.
Under the new regime, the food regulator also wants to abolish intervention of multiple agencies for things such as import of food products. Going forward, there will be a single standard for every authority.
FSSAI all set to launch ‘One Nation, One Food Law’
To use tech for uniform testing, sampling norms across States
In a bid to bring in consistency in enforcing food safety regulations and standards across States, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is set to launch its ‘One Nation One Food Law’ initiative. The regulator is leveraging technology for uniform implementation of norms for testing and sampling by various States and labs.
“We want to ensure that investors and food businesses have a consistent positive experience across States while dealing with the regulatory environment,” Pawan Agarwal, CEO, FSSAI, told BusinessLine.
He said while there is one food law that outlines standards and procedures for various food products, States have different approaches to implementing these regulations due to legacy issues or infrastructure-related challenges.
“Through these initiatives, we are enabling States to adopt good practices as well as help them build capacities to ensure that standards and regulations are enforced uniformly,” he added.
Under this initiative, FSSAI is launching the Food Safety Compliance through Regular Inspections and Sampling (FoSCoRIS) platform. This is an online platform that food safety officers will use to verify compliance of safety standards by food businesses. Food safety officers will require a hand-held device with Internet connectivity.
“This platform will ensure that uniform matrices are used to conduct tests and sample collections. The entire inspection outcome will be available on the cloud through this platform with time stamps. This will hopefully bring transparency in the process as data related to inspection, sampling and test results will be seamlessly shared by the officials,” he added.
FSSAI is also bringing out a Food Safety Officers Manual outlining the procedures and practices that must be followed during sampling and inspection. The 200-page manual also outlines code of ethics that food safety officers should follow during inspection and sampling.Regulatory portal
Meanwhile, in a bid to enable better co-ordination among national agencies such as Bureau of Indian Standards, Agmark and Legal Metrology, the FSSAI has also launched a food regulatory portal.
To make food safety testing infrastructure more robust, the regulator has launched a digital solution that will connect all the government and private food labs to a centralised lab management system called InFoLNet (Indian Food Laboratory Network).Over 154 labs have registered with this platform, Agarwal said, adding that this will ensure that all the test results are available in a central database. FSSAI intends to make it mandatory for all accredited labs to be connected to the platform and is in the process of finalising the necessary regulations.
The FSSAI is also in talks with food safety commissioners to launch a food safety index to measure and rank the performance of States on various parameters, in a bid to encourage States to focus on good practices.
HC moved to stop sale of substandard liquor in TN
Moving a public interest litigation (PIL) in the high court, V Sriraman and his friend advocate Vijay have sought the court to direct the authorities concerned to prevent sale of substandard liquor in Tasmac outlets and take action against officials responsible for such sales.
The petitioners also wanted the court to pass an interim direction to stop sale of liquor is such outlets and direct food safety officials to take random samples and produce laboratory reports in the court.
On March 23, the petitioner and his friends suffered vomiting and diarrhoea after they consumed two brands of white rum bought from a Tasmac outlet in Koyambedu.
Subsequently, he lodged a complaint with the food safety department and samples of Ancient Cask Premium XXX Rum were sent to laboratory for analysis. On June 20, the petitioner received a letter from the department with the analysis report which said that the sample was found to be substandard.
"To counter check, we sent the sample of Ancient Cask Premium XXX Rum and Bacardi Limon Rum to Chennai Mettex lab, in Guindy, an NABL-accredited laboratory. The report revealed that the sample of Ancient Cask contained 815 counts of acid which should not exceed 200 as per IS 3811-2005 (requirement for white rum). Similarly, report of Bacardi rum revealed that residue on evaporation % (m/v) resulted in 6.98% which should not exceed 1.0 & total acids resulted to 550 which shouldn't exceed 200," the petitioner said.
The petitioner further pointed out the news report in TOI published under the title, 'Gulpit! No quality check at Tasmac shops for 14 years' and said, "In the news report a food safety official had said that the department cannot conduct random checks unlike other products as there were legal issues over whether alcoholic beverages fall under the category of food."
But to the contrary, the Food Safety and Standards Authority is the licencing body for distilleries who manufacture such products, he added.
The PIL, which has been filed in the high court registry, is likely to be taken up for hearing on Friday.
Meat shops raided at HSR Layout
It was based on 25 complaints in Sept.
With a bevy of complaints reaching the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, Food Safety Commissionerate officials raided more than 10 meat shops in HSR Layout on Wednesday and directed shopkeepers to follow hygiene norms or else face closure.
What happened
- Over 10 meat shops raided
- Shopkeepers directed to follow hygiene norms or else face closure
- Authorities found alleged violations pertaining to storage and culling
The raids were based on 25 complaints filed by animal rights activists in September. The shops had violated food safety norms, and were found to be illegal and unhygienically selling meat, according to the authorities. “We have given them 15 days to respond to the notice, after which they will be closed,” said a local officer of the commissionerate, which found that the meat was exposed to dust and smoke spewed by vehicles.
While the authorities could find alleged violations pertaining to storage and culling, the quality of the meat could not be tested. The reason: it takes ₹5,000 to test just one sample of meat — a budget the commissionerate does not have.
On Thursday, officials hope to raise the issue with the Health Ministry and seek an exemption in rates that would allow for more testing. “Currently, all meat samples have to be sent to our laboratory in Hyderabad. The cost comes up to around ₹5,800 per sample, and it is too expensive to do it for all complaints received,” said Harshavardhan B., Joint Commissioner of Food Safety in Karnataka.
The cost prohibition was not limited to meat. A few months ago, the department was flooded with more than 500 samples of ‘contaminated’ eggs and rice, where plastic pellets were suspected to have been used to dilute the quality. However, the department could only manage to send 12 samples for testing. The lack of testing methods has seen officials resort to the rudimentary taste test.
‘A welcome step’
Varda Mehrotra, director of the National Federation for Animal Protection, said any sort of action from authorities was a welcome step. The BBMP and the Food Safety Commissionerate have taken serious note of the complaints and we hope the lives of animals and human beings alike would become better with increased regulation of meat shops, he said in a press release.
5 food operators fined Rs 55,000 for unsanitary conditions in Srinagar
Srinagar, Nov 1 (UNI) Five food business operators were fined Rs 55,000 for selling and processing food items in unsanitary conditions in this summer capital, Srinagar.
An official spokesperson here on Wednesday evening said that the court of Adjudicating Officer (Additional Deputy Commissioner Srinagar) imposed a fine of Rs 55,000 on five Food Business Operators, including three restaurants and a milk vendor, in Srinagar.
Meanwhile, he said the Food Safety wing of Drugs and Food Control organization presented 117 more cases before the competent court for adjudication.
“The Additional Deputy Commissioner Food Safety has warned the Chicken sellers, Bakers, Meat sellers to maintain high standards of hygiene otherwise action under relevant provisions of Food Safety & Standards Act shall be initiated against them,” he added.
He said a market checking team headed by Assistant Controller, Legal Meteorology conducted market checking at main market Bandipora, Sumbal and S K Bala.
During the checking, he said 25 traders were booked for violating Legal Meteorology laws. “A fine of Rs 9990 was also realized from the erring traders,” he said.
During the checking, he said general public especially shopkeepers were given awareness regarding Consumer Rights and Legal Meteorology.
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