DINAKARAN NEWS

Adulteration provides food for thought in House

Hyderabad: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday demanded that the government form a House committee to suggest and recommend solutions to the problem of food adulteration in the State. The issue of adulteration came up for discussion during the Question Hour on Monday when Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) member V Srinivas Rao sought to know about the steps being taken by the government to curb food adulteration.

The Health Minister said the government had sanctioned 30 posts of Food Safety Officers and 10 posts of designated officers in the State for implementation of FSS Act. In addition, task force, along with the Police and Food Department officials, was checking food adulteration in the State by constituting 14 special teams. The Minister said there was one Food Testing Laboratory in the State located at Nacharam in Hyderabad. The State food laboratory had been serving for both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and its capacity to analyse food sample was about 12,600 samples per annum, he added. Cases had been filed before the first class magistrate court adjudicating officer in a set of samples found not maintaining the quality parameters.

As the Minister replied, MIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi said this was an important issue and it needed to be discussed at length. He wanted the Speaker to instruct the Minister to call for a meeting.

He said there should be 60 to 80 persons to check food outlets in each circle within the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), but there were only three officials. “How can they go and inspect all the food outlets?” he asked. He said every other commodity was being adulterated right from the milk which small children consumed and the ginger-garlic paste to oil and ghee. He said that adulteration business had become a Rs10,000 crore worth industry, and there was a need to put an end to the practice for the safety of people.

BJP member G Kishan Reddy wanted the government to form a House committee so that the members could suggest guidelines and steps to curb the adulteration. He said there were about 50 illegal slaughterhouses running in the city and all under the nose of the government. The speaker said the issue would be taken in the form of a discussion.

Govt have sanctioned 30 food safety officers: Minister

Hyderabad, Nov 6 (UNI) Telangana Medical and Health Minister Dr K Laxma Reddy on Monday said the government has sanctioned 30 posts of food safety officers and 10 posts of designated officers in the state for implementation of Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act.

Mr Reddy said in the Assembly that apart from sanctioning of food safety officers and designated officers, the state government also constituted 14 special teams consisting of task force with police and food department for checking food adulteration in the state.

He said one food testing laboratory in the state located at Nacharma here. The lab has been serving for both states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The capacity to analyse food sample is about 12,600 samples per annum.

Elaborating food samples analysed during 2014-2017, Mr Reddy said 222 sample were analysed during 2014-15. Of them, 13 samples found not conforming standards (5.85 per cent). In 2015-16, 1809 samples analysed. Of them 435 found not conforming standards (24 per cent). 1433 samples analysed during the year 2016-17. Of them 304 found not conforming standards (11.69 per cent). In 2017-18 up to September, 3788 samples analysed. Of them 250 found not conforming standards (6.59 per cent), the Minister added.

With the high intensity of food adulteration, the Speaker allowed short discussion on it.

Food safety department closes down 10 canteens

ALAPPUZHA: During the state-wide inspection drive by food safety officials, canteens and messes of ten institutions--including schools, colleges and hospitals--were closed down with immediate effect for failing to comply with the food safety norms. The inspections were carried out from October 30 to November 3, in all the districts, in the wake of repeated incidents of food poisoning in schools and colleges after consuming canteen food.As many as 332 school and hostel messes, 454 college canteens, 275 hospital canteens, 94 government office canteens and 188 private hospital canteens were raided during inspections.

Establishments that do not possess the mandatory Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) licence or registration will be closed down within seven days, said food safety commissioner Veena N Madhavan. "It was observed that many organizations did not possess the mandatory FSSAI licence or registration required for food businesses. These institutions had been directed to take necessary steps to comply with the food safety regulations within seven days.Otherwise stringent statutory action would be initiated during the re-inspection of these premises," Madhavan said.

Another round of inspections would be carried out in all organizations after the expiry of the stipulated time.

A total of 1,343 institutions were inspected across the state. Out of them, rectification notices were is sued to 857 establishments and a total fine of Rs 2,73,500 was levied upon 129 institutions for failing to adhere with the food hygiene and quality standards prescribed in the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.

"The recent slew of food poisoning incidents reported in over 7 institutions of the state followed by repeated complaints of unhygienic and unsafe practices adopted in the kitchens of large-scale institutions led the department to initiate a state-wide enforcement drive to identify non-compliance and initiate statutory action against offenders," said Madhavan.