Mar 12, 2018
கோயம்பேடு மார்க்கெட்டில் விடிய, விடிய சோதனை: செயற்கை முறையில் பழுக்க வைத்த 5 டன் பழங்கள் பறிமுதல்
கோயம்பேடு மார்க்கெட்டில் உணவு பொருள் பாதுகாப்பு அதிகாரிகள் விடிய, விடிய சோதனை நடத்தினர். அப்போது செயற்கை முறையில் பழுக்க வைத்த 5 டன் பழங்களை பறிமுதல் செய்தனர்.
கோயம்பேடு,
சென்னை கோயம்பேடு மார்க்கெட்டில், ‘ஈத்தலின்’ என்னும் ரசாயனத்தை தண்ணீரில் கலந்து, அதை வாழைத்தார்கள் மீது ஊற்றி செயற்கை முறையில் வாழை பழங்களை பழுக்க வைத்து விற்கப்படுவதுடன், சென்னையின் சுற்றுப்புற பகுதிகளுக்கும் அனுப்பி வைக்கப்படுவதாக கடந்த சில நாட்களுக்கு முன்பு ‘தினத்தந்தி’யில் படத்துடன் செய்தி வெளியானது.
மேலும் இதுதொடர்பாக பொதுமக்களிடம் இருந்து வீடியோ காட்சிகளுடன் ஏராளமான புகார்களும் வந்தன. இதையடுத்து கோயம்பேடு மார்க்கெட்டில் உள்ள பழக்கடைகளில் உணவு பாதுகாப்பு அதிகாரிகள் ஆய்வு செய்து, செயற்கை முறையில் பழங்களை பழுக்க வைத்தால் நடவடிக்கை எடுக்கப்படும் என பழ வியாபாரிகளை எச்சரித்தனர்.
இந்தநிலையில் கோயம்பேடு மார்க்கெட்டில் உள்ள பழக்கடைகளில் நேற்று முன்தினம் இரவு உணவு பொருள் கட்டுப்பாட்டு நியமன அலுவலர் கதிரவன், உணவு பாதுகாப்பு அதிகாரிகள் சதாசிவம், மணிமாறன், ஜெபராஜ், ராஜாமுகமது மற்றும் அங்காடி நிர்வாக குழு ஊழியர்கள் 25-க்கும் மேற்பட்ட போலீசாருடன் சென்று சோதனை நடத்தினர். இந்த சோதனை விடிய, விடிய நீடித்தது.
அப்போது ‘ஈத்தலின்’ என்னும் ரசாயனம் மூலம் செயற்கை முறையில் பழுக்க வைக்கப்பட்ட வாழை பழங்கள், கார்பைடு கற்கள் மூலம் பழுக்க வைத்த சப்போட்டா, மாம்பழங்கள் என மொத்தம் 5 டன் பழங்களை பறிமுதல் செய்து அழித்தனர்.
Chennai: Fruits worth Rs 2.5 lakh ripened using chemicals, seized
CHENNAI: In a midnight operation that spanned nearly three hours, food safety officials seized fruits worth Rs 2.5 lakh, being ripened using chemicals at Koyambedu market in the wee hours of Sunday.
In the wake of recent media reports on use of chemicals to ripen fruits at Koyambedu market, around 50 officials, including police and Market Management Committee officials, started the checks around 2 am.
After nearly three hours, officials seized 3.25 tonnes of sapota (chiku), one tonne of mango and 750 kg of banana. A total of 24 shops were found to be using chemicals to artificially ripen fruits and substances such as calcium carbide stones. Chemical sprayers were seized from the shops.
“We will file cases against the vendors in the coming days. Three of them have been identified,” said R Kathiravan, designated officer, Food Safety Department, Chennai.He said despite warnings and creation of awareness by the department on the harmful effects of chemicals on fruits, some continue the practice.
M Thiyagarajan, president, Koyambedu Kaai, Kani, Malar Vyabarigal Sangam, said the vendors resort to artificial ripening of fruits since it makes the fruits saleable quickly. “They do this because of the quick money it gives. We are always appealing to vendors to show concern over the health of consumers,” he said.Doctors have warned people to be cautious while consuming the fruits.
The doctors said the impact of consuming artificially-ripened fruits varied from people to people. While to some it may cause diarrhoea, for others it may reach extreme forms leading to serious case of dehydration and loss of electrolytes.
Explaining the traditional methods to ripen the fruits, Thiyagarajan said though they took time, they never had a harmful impact on consumers. For mangoes, the fruits were stored in a hay room and left for three to four days. Bananas would be stored in a smoke-filled room. In this process, the bananas would take one or two days to become ripe. “Since these are tedious processes, vendors resort to chemicals to make quick money,” Thiyagarajan said.
Food dept seizes five tonnes of artificially ripened fruit
Chennai: Officials from the state foodsafety department seized nearly five tonnesof artificially ripened fruit from wholesale stores at Koyambedu market during the wee hours of Sunday.
A team comprising of officials from CMDA’s Market Management Committee and the local police assistedthefoodsafety department in raiding the shops based on complaintsfrom the public.
Five tonnes of artificially ripened mangoes, sapotas and ethylene-sprayed bananas packed in boxes and ready for salewere seized, said the designated food safety officer RKathiravan.
Rolls of butter paper with calcium carbide, used to artificially ripen the fruit, were also seized. Officials estimated the total value of the seized products to be more than ₹10lakh.
Since the seized food items (the fruit) were of perishable nature, officials and local sanitary workers destroyedthem.
Calcium carbide is banned under Section 44A of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act. There is, nonetheless, widespread use of the chemical by traders to hasten the ripening process.
Doctors say artificial ripening substances that contain traces of phosphorus or arsenic and could damage the kidney and liver, and cause gastric problems and ulcer.
Officialssay artificially ripened mangoes are mostly a bright and uniform yellow, rigid and lack the juiciness or “press” that naturally ripened mangoeshave. The natural rigidity will be missing while cutting these fruit and they will have almost no taste, officials added.
Gutka: TN oppn flags crores, fine’s just ₹55k
Chennai: A paltry ₹55,000 has been collected for illegal manufacturing and sale of gutka — which triggered a huge political controversy in the state, with the opposition alleging kickbacks being paid to several top ministers — in the last one year in Chennai, shows data provided by the state food safety department.
While more than ₹3 crore-worth gutka products were seized from retailers in Chennai, only a few of them have been held guilty by court, shows an RTI reply by the department.
A letter allegedly written by the then Chennai police commissioner, S George, to the principal secretary claiming that health minister C Vijayabaskar and other top cops had received huge sums of money to allow the sale of tobacco products in the state has kicked up a huge furore in the assembly, pushing the government imposed a complete ban on the sale of gutka products.
MONEY SPINNER: Sale of gutka products is banned in TN
Only 5 retailers convicted, no manufacturers nailed by state food safety dept since 2016
From 2016, Tamil Nadu Food Safety and Drug Administration department has lifted 43 samples of chewable tobacco and gutka from retailers across the city. Of these, legal proceedings have been initiated against 26. Only five ended in conviction. Those found guilty were let off with a fine of ₹10,000.
In the same period, 970 cases were registered in police stations across Chennai under various sections of Cigarette and Other Tobacco Product Act (COPTA). Of this only 245 ended in conviction and ₹50,400 collected as fine, all in the range of around ₹100-₹500.
The outcome of the leniency: “Almost all the vendors we initiate action against are habitual offenders. The fine means nothing. Their profit is much more,” said a senior food safety official.
According to Section 59 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, any person who manufactures, sells, stores or distributes food for human consumption which is unsafe – causing non-grievous injury --can be imprisoned for a term of up to a year and be fined a sum of up to ₹3 lakh. If the injury is grievous, the jail sentence may extend to six years and up to ₹5 lakh in fine.
However, when D Kumar, an activist in Coimbatore, filed an RTI to source the actiontaken details, his intention wasn’t to find how many retailers were prosecuted. “They are only the small fish. I wanted to find out how many manufacturers have been nailed. The reply said none,” he said.
Officials said initiating action against the manufacturers is tough as all of them are based outside Tamil Nadu. Food safety commissioner P Amudha recently wrote to Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) urging officials to take action in the source states. “Most of the manufacturers are either based out of Delhi or Haryana. Every time we have a seizure here, we intimate FSSAI,” she said. In 2013, Tamil Nadu had joined several other states in banning the manufacture, storage and sale of gutka, paan masala and other carcinogenic chewable forms of tobacco by invoking the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act.
Despite the ban, the banned products continue to find their way into the state through its porous borders – mostly by rail or road. Last month, the food safety department had received a tip-off on a consignment of gutka arriving at Madurai railway station. “We wrote to the Railway police asking them to intercept the contraband. They were reluctant,” said Amudha, who had to seek FSSAI’s intervention. “It turned out that the officials were not aware of gutka being banned in the state,” she said.
The RTI is not the only document reflecting the rampant sale of tobacco products. A study released by Adyar Cancer Institute in 2017, based on interviews with over a lakh people, found that that more than 90% of smokeless tobacco users in the state have no difficulty in procuring banned gutka products, although they pay double the price to buy it. “The products have just moved from the shelves to beneath the vendors’ clothes,” said R Kathiravan, designated food safety officer, Chennai. Tobacco control advocate Cyril Alexander said, manufacturers and distributors of banned tobacco products often slip through the state’s radar owing to poor coordination between various departments.
Five tonnes of artificially ripened fruits destroyed
24 shops out of 136 in Koyambedu found using chemicals
A total of five tonnes of artificially ripened fruits including a tonne of mangoes were seized from the Koyambedu fruit market and destroyed on Sunday.
A team of officials belonging to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) along with a posse of police conducted raids through Saturday night and Sunday early morning to seize 3.25 tonnes of sapotta and 750 kg of banana.
A total of 136 shops were inspected and 24 were found to be using chemicals to ripen the fruits artificially. The seized fruits, worth ₹2.5 lakh, were disposed at the Koyambedu bio-methanisation plant, sources said.
Based on a tip-off
The raids were conducted based on a tip-off that fruits were being ripened on trucks that were bringing them to the market. “Though we could not catch any truck, we did find the fruits in the shops. A week ago, we conducted an awareness programme about the health risks of artificially ripened fruits,” an official said.
Under the Food Safety Act 2006 and Regulations 2011, the sale of fruits artificially ripened using acetylene gas, commonly known as carbide gas, is prohibited.
The sapottas and mangoes were ripened using carbide gas emitted by calcium carbide stones.
According to the officials, the bananas were doused in ethylene gas to ripen them.
Don’t give in to tobacco lobby, Tata Hospital doctor tells CM
Letter seeks cancellation of licence if shops are found selling tobacco products
Mumbai: A head and neck surgeon from Tata Memorial Hospital has urged Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis not to succumb to the pressure of the tobacco lobby. Dr. Pankaj Chaturvedi, an anti-tobacco activist, in his letter, has also appealed to the CM to ban the sale of tobacco to minors and allow its sale only through licensed vendors.
Dr. Chaturvedi said tobacco shops are mushrooming and freely available to the future generation. “The public health community was thrilled to know that the Maharashtra government is planning to make sale of gutkha a non-bailable offence. Recently, the government issued a notification banning sale of tobacco at shops selling chocolates and candies. However, I bring to your notice that the tobacco lobby will do everything to subvert this pro-public step. Please do not succumb to their pressure,” Dr. Chaturvedi wrote in his letter sent to Mr. Fadnavis on Saturday.
Early this year, the State had announced that general stores selling chips, biscuits, and chocolates cannot sell tobacco products. Officials from the Food and Drug Administration said such shops are frequented by minors and youngsters, who have easy access to such products.
But the move has definitely not gone down well with tobacco companies. “It has come to our notice that almost all outlets in Mumbai are trading in tobacco products in violation of the Cigarettes and other Tobacco products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulations of Trade and Commerce Production, Supply and Distribution) Act 2003 and Rules, Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and Regulations, and the Legal Metrology Act, thereby causing danger to our kids,” he said.
The tobacco lobby, Dr. Chaturvedi said, targets kids and youth as their new consumers. “They strategically aim to lure kids into this deadly addiction,” he said, and requested the government to take stringent action like cancellation of licence of shops found selling tobacco products.
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