DINAKARAN NEWS

Global food companies form lobby in India to avoid Maggi-like fiasco

Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) has decided to establish an Indian arm to work with the government, FSSAI and academia for ensuring food safety

New Delhi: To avoid another Maggi-like fiasco, global food companies such as Cargill, Nestle, Coca-Cola, Danone, Tesco, Metro Group and Amazon have come together to form a lobby in India to work with the government, the regulator and academia to ensure food safety.

The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), which is managed by France-headquartered international trade organization Consumer Goods Forum, has decided to establish an Indian arm.

“India will be the seventh Local Group of GFSI that we are aiming to formalize early next year,” said Mike Robach, chairman of the board of directors, GFSI.

The core team of the GFSI India wing, which will have 20-25 members to start with, will have representatives from most of the firms that constitute the Board of GFSI.

It will bring GFSI’s global practices to India and mobilize the local food industry, besides engaging with the regulator and other government authorities regarding food safety issues and practices followed by companies, said Robach.

Global food manufacturers want to avoid a fiasco like the one Nestle India Ltd, the local unit of the Swiss packaged food maker Nestle SA, had to face in 2015 after the regulator Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) declared a nationwide ban on Maggi Noodles over safety concerns.

The debacle shaved off more than half a billion dollars from Nestle’s coffers.

Having a local wing in India is not common practice among global industry-specific lobby groups. Other industry-specific lobbies, such as GSMA that lobbies for cellular operators worldwide, have representatives in India but not a formal India wing.

India is among the fastest growing markets for packaged goods. In 2015, cumulative revenue of fast moving consumer goods firms in India was about $47.3 billion, which is predicted to cross $103 billion in 2020, according to data by market research firm Statista.

GFSI, which was set up under Belgian Law in May in 2000, works on improving food safety management systems across the world.

The concept of local groups is part of GFSI’s plan to implement its global strategy at a local level and exchange local knowledge with the global team. At present, GFSI has six local groups—South Latin America, Mexico, Japan, China, Europe and US-Canada.

GFSI comprises leading food safety experts in retail, manufacturing and food service companies, as well as international organizations, governments, academia and service providers to the global food industry, said Robach, who is also vice-president (corporate food safety, quality and regulatory) at Cargill Inc.

GFSI’s global board includes representatives from food and food retail firms.

Besides the board, GFSI has technical working groups and benchmarking leaders who work for improving food safety management systems globally.

“In India, we’ll have a team of 20-25 members who will be representatives from our member companies globally. Besides, we’ll leverage networks and knowledge of local industry associations,” said the GFSI chairman. GFSI has held talks with FSSAI and industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) regarding formation of GFSI’s India wing.

Besides benchmarking of food safety schemes, enhancing food safety management systems, GFSI is currently working on bringing the farm-to-fork food supply chain under a food safety management system.

In June 2007, eight major retailers—Carrefour of France, Tesco of UK, ICA Gruppen AB of Sweden, Metro AG of Germany, Migros of Switzerland, Ahold of Netherlands, Wal-Mart of the US, and Delhaize of Belgium—agreed to follow a common food safety scheme benchmarked by GFSI.

FSSAI set to issue rule on mandatory warning against drunken driving on liquor bottles

NEW DELHI: India’s top food regulator is set to make it mandatory for all liquor bottles to have a message against drunken driving, while turning down a proposal to also add a pictorial warning against the same, on the lines of cigarette packets.
The development comes following a direction from the Delhi High Court, which had asked to Food and Safety Standards Authority of India to look into the matter, on a petition filed by an NGO Community Against Drunken Driving.
“We carried out consultations on the issue and also studied global practices. However, we came to the conclusion that liquor manufacturers in other countries, too, are not mandated by food regulators to have such messages or warnings and decide on their own,” said Pawan Agarwal, chief executive officer, FSSAI.
“We have however decided to ask for mandatory text warnings on liquor bottles against drunken driving after it is approved by the government,” he added.
Sources said that the decision comes following a meeting between FSSAI officials, representatives of several liquor brands and civil society members in which designs of six designs of pictorial warnings were discussed.
“While four designs were proposed by the NGO CADD, interestingly two of the liquor brands, also had come up with two designs but most other brands put their feet down and said they don’t want such a rule,” a source told the newspaper.
Prince Singhal, founder-president of CADD, on the other hand said that, while it was good that FSSAI had taken a positive step and decided to go ahead with a guideline the text warning on the bottles, he will approach the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to consider the pictorial warning.

“We are pushing for it because it is in public interest and impacts crores of people,” he said. “I hope that as health ministry imposed the rule (of pictorial warning on harms of smoking) on cigarette companies, they also do the same for liquor manufacturers,” he said.

According to the data by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways while drunken driving causes only about 4.8 per cent of total five lakh road crashes in the country every year, fatality in such cases is very high. Over 70 per cent of the victims in such crashes end up dead, statistics show.

HC flags concern on contaminated fruits

HYDERABAD: Agreeing with the concerns raised by the amicus curiae that consuming fruits today is akin to consumption of poison, the Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday sought to know from AP and Telangana the number of food safety officers, food inspectors etc they have appointed to ensure that the food sold in the market is free from chemicals and adulteration.

The number of raids conducted and the results yielded too should be furnished, said the bench of acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice G Shyam Prasad, which had in August 2015 suo motu converted media reports about ripening of mangoes through calcium carbide into a public interest litigation. The court also appointed senior counsel S Niranjan Reddy as amicus curiae to assist the bench in the case. After the HC took up the case, the two Telugu states conducted flash raids on fruit markets and filled up a few food inspector posts.

When the matter came up for hearing after a long gap, the bench told the states that "as all of us consume fruits, we are all bound to suffer the ill-effects of ripening through chemicals. You need to come out with a clear plan, policy and solution to the menace". Niranjan Reddy furnished various reports to the court explaining the methods of artificial ripening. He also suggested recommending relatively harmless chemical ripeners as alternatives that will also address traders' concerns. The court expressed serious concern over the long-term impact of such fruits on the health of humans.

Niranjan also told the court that even daily essentials like milk, sugar, rice and salt, too, are being adulterated with harmful substances. Stating that pressing into service adequate number of food safety officers (FSO) will yield better results, the senior counsel said Telangana and AP were lagging behind in recruiting adequate number of such officers. While Tamil Nadu has 554 food safety officers, AP has just 28 and Telangana, too, is faring poorly with 20, Niranjan Reddy said. the bench sought details of FSO machinery from the two states within a week.

Food safety department sends notice to supplier of Amul milk product

AGRA: Food safety department of Firozabad has issued a notice to Amul milk productsupplier and distributor after the department found less fat content in milk against the declared percentage on the milk packet.

The matter came to light after the FSDA collected a sample of Amul milk in the month of June this year from milk outlets in Firozabad and sent their samples to government laboratory of Varanasi for examination.

Speaking to TOI, Virendra Singh Kushwaha, the chief food safety officer said, "After collecting the samples of Amul milk, we first took it to a nearby private laboratory to check if the milk content is according to set parameters. The result revealed that fat content was .8% less against the declared 6%. To recheck, we took the sample to another private lab, and again the same result was found. Finally, we decided to send the sample to Varanasi lab, so as to take legal action against the supplier and distributor of milk."

He said, "In summer months, to meet the increased demand for milk, suppliers often mix water in their products to increase the milk quantity, which results in less fat content."

"The Varanasi lab also confirmed that Amul milk sample had only 5.2 % fat. We have now sent notice to Neelam milk agency of Firozabad, the prime distributor of milk product in the district and Garima Milk and Food Product of Dholpur, a packager and supplier of Amul products in Western UP district. If they wish, the two can challenge the lab results and samples will be again sent to Kolkata laboratory. But if they accept the report, then we will levy hefty penalty for low quality milk product," he added.

The lab report was shared to additional city magistrate Sheetla Prasad Yadav, who directed FSDA to send the notice to two concern parties.

Speaking on the lab report of less fat content in Amul milk, the prime distributor Neelam Agency owner Pankaj said, "Whatever product the supplier provides us, we distribute it. Appropriate reply will be given to FSDA separately from our agency and Garima Milk and Food Product of Dholpur."