Mar 28, 2018
FSSAI to align licensing norms with GST
NEW DELHI, MARCH 27
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is working on amending the registration and licensing regulations for food businesses. It will look at reclassifying food businesses on the basis of their turnover, in a bid to align these norms with GST.
FSSAI CEO Pawan Agarwal said: “We are working on bringing a comprehensive amendment to the licensing and registration regulations for food business operators. The amendments will include classification of licences for food businesses on the basis of turnover in line with GST and MSME norms.”
All food business operators need to register with, or obtain licences from, the authorities at the State or Central level. But small food business operators with a turnover of ₹12 lakh, also known as ‘petty food manufacturers’, are only required to register but not obtain a licence.
Agarwal said the FSSAI proposes to raise the turnover limit for ‘petty food manufacturers’ to ₹20 lakh in line with the GST norms. In addition, it proposes to reduce the number of kind of businesses (KOB) categories from 17 to eigth categories.
At the same time, FSSAI is also focusing on revamping its existing online portal used by companies to register or apply for licences. “We are now developing a new-generation e-portal which will focus not just on registration and licensing applications but also create a compliance history of food businesses. We will call this portal the Food Compliance System and it will be launched in three to five months,” Agarwal added.
The regulator will look at the company’s track record with regards to compliance with standards and labelling norms before issuing fresh licences through the revamped portal.
In a bid to raise the bar of quality and hygiene at restaurants, the FSSAI is launching a framework for voluntary hygiene rating mechanism. The aim is to promote self-compliance of food hygiene and safety among restaurants and inform consumers about hygiene quality in the eateries, he explained.
FSSAI is exploring the option of hiring a third party agency to do the hygiene ratings for restaurants. It is in the process of training food safety advisers for food businesses to promote self-compliance of food safety norms.
It has conducted 800-odd training programmes for food businesses, and The could look at making the hygiene ratings mandatory in a few years.
Cholera cases in Chennai hospital: Food safety and public health officials begin probe
CHENNAI: A day after two patients in a private hospital at Teynampet here tested positive for cholera, food safety and public health officials Wednesday morning initiated an investigation into the source of the water-borne disease.
Three other patients in the same hospital are suspected to have the infection. This is the first time in two years that the state is seeing cholera cases.
Food safety officials will collect 10 food and water samples from the hospital.
Preliminary inquiries have made public health officials suspect that the carrier of the infection could have been a patient from Uganda, one of the two confirmed cases, who showed symptoms of cholera a day after he was admitted to hospital.
"He had carried food from his home country. But we are investigating other angles too -- how the remaining patients got the infection and if there are other cases in the city," said a health official.
Director of public health K Kulandaisamy, designated food safety officer in the city R Kathiravan and Greater Chennai Corporation health officer Dr N A Senthilnathan are probing.
Chennai Corporation deputy commissioner, health, P Madhusudhan said, “As of now the infection is contained within the hospital. We are doing an end to end search to ensure that there is no spread.”
The patients were moved to the isolation ward to prevent spread of the infection. All of them were stable, sources told TOI on Tuesday. They had been admitted to hospital for various reasons, including cancer.
Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium vibrio cholerae. Public health experts say it is an extremely virulent disease that can cause severe acute watery diarrhea.
Railways told to take action on transport of gutka into Tamil Nadu
CHENNAI: Taking note of railway officials’ reluctance to check the transport of banned gutka into Tamil Nadu by train, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India(FSSAI) has written to Indian Railways on March 14 seeking an action taken report on recent seizures in the state.
This comes after Tamil Nadu food safety commissioner P Amudha wrote two letters to FSSAI stating that railway officials in the state appeared to be unaware of the 2016 Supreme Court order banning the manufacture, sale and distribution of gutka. A TOI report on March 3, describing how gutka was being brought in through the Delhi-Kanyakumari Thirukkural bi-weekly express and unloaded at Madurai junction in violation of railway rules, was also attached by Amudha with the letter. Gutka was found to be smuggled through containers on railways by the Chennai police as well.
After a tip-off by social activist Jayaram Venkatesan, railway vigilance and Railway Protection Force (RPF) raided the train and seized a consignment of 200 bundles in February. But they couldn’t file an FIR as they were waiting for the food safety department to test the sample in their laboratory. Authorities also said at the time that as per railway rules, tobacco was not acontraband.
The train was found to be illegally stopped for 20 minutes to unload the consignment, while its scheduled stoppage time is only five minutes.
Asenior railway official in the Madurai division told TOI that they have declared the consignment as contraband. “There is no doubt from our side. The food safety authority has taken the samples on March 15 and the test reports are awaited, after which they will destroy the contraband,” he said. Until the test report comes, the government railway police (GRP) will not be able to file an FIR, he said, adding that two commercial clerks have been chargesheeted in the case.
Section 59 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 states that anybody who manufactures, sells, stores or distributes food which is unsafe — causing non-grievous injury — can be imprisoned for one year and fined up to ₹3 lakh.
Venkatesan said there was acollusion of railway employees in the racket. “How can a driver prolong stoppage at a station without collusion? There’s clearly a network which has to be investigated,” he said.
‘Stern action against illegal manufacture, export and sale of creatine monohydrate in Kerala'
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Food Safety Commissionerate has put its foot down on the unlicensed manufacture, import and sale of creatine monohydrate, a popular supplement used by bodybuilders and athletes as performance enhancers, in the state.
The order comes in the wake of an instruction issued by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) in December to all states asking them to stop the unlicensed manufacture, import and sale of the supplement. The commissionerate on Tuesday urged the public to inform it about over-the-counter sales and sales through e-platforms on the toll-free number 1800-425-1125.
According to the FSSAI, creatine monohydrate is a product/ingredient for which no standard has, so far, been prescribed under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, and the rules and regulations made under it. “It is also observed that some food business operators having food licences issued by licensing authorities are selling food products in the name of the product containing creatine monohydrate. These activities carried out by the FBOs are illegal and unauthorised,” the FSSAI said.
Creatine monohydrate is one of the supplements that athletes use to build lean muscle mass, increase strength and maximise performance. While formal studies have not been conducted, its indiscriminate use has been on the rise among youngsters.
In December, FSSAI director (Regulatory Compliance) Garima Singh had asked the states to keep an eye on the sale of such products and slap notices on e-commerce businesses that sell these products through their websites. FSSAI had issued notices to e-commerce giants including Amazon and Flipkart and also notified 13 companies engaged in the manufacture and sale of creatine monohydrate.
153 people fall sick after consuming panakam during Srirama Navami celebrations at A Konduru
VIJAYAWADA: As many as 153 persons fell sick with food poisoning after drinking ‘panakam’ (a traditional drink made with jaggery and black pepper powder on the occasion of Srirama Navami festival) at A Konduru in Krishna district. Those who participated in Srirama Navami celebrations at Adda Road and consumed panakam fell sick with the symptoms of diarrhea.
All the victims were from Chaitanya Nagar Thanda and Mantriya Thanda two small habitations located on either side of the road under A Konduru village. The population of the two villages is about 500 of which 39 people were severely affected and rest of them also developed symptoms of diarrhea. The villagers participated in the festival celebrations on Monday evening and had pulihora and panakam distributed as prasadam.
People started falling sick with vomiting, diarrhea and fever over the night and by the morning the number went on increasing in both the habitations. The revenue officials swung into action immediately and shifted them to Tiruvru and Mylavaram government hospitals.
The officials took preventive measures by conducting door to door survey in the two habitations and shifted everyone even with little symptoms to hospitals. A Konduru tahasildar M Suresh Kumar and health officer M Anusha visited every home to make sure that no one was left behind.
Speaking to TOI, Suresh Kumar said, "primarily it appears that the diarrhea was because of food poisoning which took place in panakam. We have noticed that the panakam was mixed in the fertilizer cans. We suspect that the cans might have not been properly cleaned and people fell sick because of chemical contamination. However, the food safety officials have collected samples and a detailed analysis is being done."
Krishna district collector B Lakshmikantam visited the villages and oversaw the measures being taken by the officials. A medical camp was set-up in the villages. Vijayawada MP Kesineni Srinivas and Tiruvuru MLA Rakshana Nidhi also enquired about the incident.
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