DINAKARAN NEWS

DINAKARAN NEWS

Amway India launches campaign to promote safe, healthy food among children

NEW DELHI, APRIL 30

In a bid to create awareness about healthy food among children, the direct selling FMCG company Amway India has announced ‘Safe & Nutritious food (SNF @school)’ programme.

Through the programme, the company plans to reach out to over 2,00,000 school-going children across 100 schools in the National Capital Region (NCR).

The aim is to create awareness on food safety and nutrition at school level and facilitate easy learning for children in their own vernacular language. Students will be taught about the benefits of nutritious food through interactive awareness sessions.

“This programme is a powerful tool to ingrain the benefits of eating well in school-going children who are the future of our society. We believe food security along with a safe, healthy food environment is the right of every child and the foundation for a healthy nation”, said Anshu Budhraja, CEO, Amway India.

Prasadam `Appam` & `Aravana` with Enhanced Taste by CFTRI Technology

To enhance the taste of the Prasadam of the 'appam' and 'aravana' of the Lord Ayyappa temple in Kerala, there shall be Technical guidance of Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore from Mid may 2018.

The 'Sabarimala Appam' is a hard but sweet ball made of rice, kadalippazham (a variety of banana), ghee and so on, while 'Aravana' is a thick sweet dessert made of jaggery.

CFTRI is a Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) laboratory working on Research in the area of food safety mainly focuses on genomic, and nutriomic approaches for identifying genetically modified foods, food pathogens, biomarkers, plant based toxicants, allergens, adulterants and nutritional labelling.

Indian agri-food sector, though has experienced increased production of essential food commodities. Also there are losses occurring in the chain of post-harvest operations. These deteriorative loses are the result of accelerated physiological, chemical and microbiological processes occurring in food commodities.

The Food Protectants and Infestation Control deals with R&D in the areas of post-harvest protective measures relating to pest and infestation control in stored food grains, spices and processed foods.

Advanced multiscale modeling for understanding protein structure and functional relationships towards food applications and disease mechanisms. In addition, mandate includes developing and validating robust high end analytical methodologies (FT-IR, FT-NIR, HPLC, GC-MS, LC-MS/MS, IRMS, ICP etc) for oils and fats, milk and milk products, maximum residue limits of chemical and industrial contaminants and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) including pesticides and antibiotic residues and tolerance levels of toxic metals chiefly occurring in food chain that aids in quality assurance and in implementation of new regulations of food standards. Also research is conducted on anti-nutritional factors such as alkaloids, protease inhibitors, tannins and phytates and on permissible levels of natural toxicants such as agaric acid, hydrocyanic acid, aflatoxins and mycotoxins and biological contaminants (bacterial and fungal species) that cause diseases and shelf life studies of food products. 

CFTRI has developed Smart Cart, a highly energy efficient mobile infrastructure of kitchen to produce and deliver safe and hygienic food by street food vendors. Another contribution is towards monitoring the quality and safety of food using a robust tool kit for rapid analysis of food which is being popularized widely.

The strength of the Food Protectants and Infestation Control lies in the multidisciplinary approach with experts in the areas of fumigation, stored product entomology, pesticide chemistry, biopesticides, microbial bioremediation and pesticide toxicology.

Protecting stored food products from storage pests forms a basis for food security and food safety. Insect resistance to conventional fumigants and insecticides has been the major threat leading to control failures. Alternative strategies are required to combat the existing resistance and thereby achieve pest free storage of food commodities.

In view of above, we focusses to develop alternate strategies to manage insect resistance against conventional fumigants, to search and investigate the efficacy of new fumigants, to study the importance of modified or controlled atmosphere treatments for residue free storage of food grains, to develop phytochemical and essential oils based bio-fumigants for infestation control and to understand the infestation tactics of insect pests to develop insect detection and control devices. The Food Protectants and Infestation Control is recognized by Insecticide Regulatory Authority of India / Central Insecticide Board for industrial services and training programs on pest management in foods.

The 'appam' and 'aravana', the sweet ball and jaggery dessert, which are sold as prasadam (offering) at the famed Lord Ayyappa temple in Kerala, are set to get a makeover from the next pilgrim season. The Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), which provides guidance for making delicious 'laddu' and 'panchamrutham,' offered at the famed Tirumala Tirupati temple and Lord Muruga's shrine in Palani respectively, are now gearing up to give a new touch to the prasadam of Sabarimala temple.

The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), which manages the hillock Ayyappa Temple, has roped in the CFTRI to enhance the quality, taste and shelf-life of the 'appam' and 'aravana,'" which has large number of takers.

Located atop holy hills of Sabarimala in Pathanamthitta district, the Lord Ayyappa shrine draws lakhs of pilgrims from and outside the country including foreigners during the annual pilgrim season from November to January. " TDB president, A Padmakumar said the temple would open for the monthly pooja on May 15 and an MoU between the Board and the CFTRI is expected to be signed on the next day.

A team of TDB officials recently visited the government-run CFTRI's Mysore campus to evaluate its production mechanism. "As CFTRI is a government agency, we have to decide and finalise the terms and conditions. We hope to sign the MoU with them on May 16," Padmakumar said.

"The CFTRI experts would also impart training to the temple staff who prepare the prasadams during their visit," he said.

If everything goes as planned, the 'appam' and 'aravana,' with the 'CFTRI touch', would be made available to devotees from the next pilgrim season, he said.

The TDB, however, has no plans to increase the price of the packed prasadams.

Detailing the changes to be made to the prasadams, Padmakumar said there may not be much changes in the ingredients, but the overall taste would be enhanced.

CMO Dmu cautions against buying unlabelled products

Dimapur chief medical officer (CMO), Dr. K. Vikato Kinimi has appealed to consumers not to purchase food products that do not have proper labels.

In a press release, the CMO said it has come to the notice of his office that many food business operators (FBO) in Dimapur district are manufacturing/packaging, storing and selling food articles, besides packaged drinking water of 10/20 litres jars, without FSSAI and ISI/BIS certification numbers.

According to him, Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 prohibits selling of any food item to consumers without manufacturing date/best before date, expiry date, net quantity (weight/volume), veg and non-veg logo, FSSAI, BIS number, manufacturers’ detailed address, etc, on package labels. And defaulters are punishable with fine up to Rs 2 lakh, he added.

Kinimi asked consumers to submit written complaints/letters in case of any complaint related to food safety standards to the designated officer of food safety in CMO office for further necessary action in the interest of public/consumers.

FSDA to check bhandara samples to ensure adherence to safety norms

LUCKNOW: The district administration has ordered food safety and drug administration(FSDA) to take samples from ‘bhandaras’ organised during Bada Mangal celebrationsacross the city for testing to find out whether they follow safety norms. The administration has also circulated the food safety norms among temples, requesting them to spread awareness about it among devotees, particularly those who are organizing bhandaras.

Officials said that around 1,000 stalls are expected to be set up across the city on Bada Mangal on Tuesday. The figure is based on the request letters seeking permission of loudspeakers received by the administration. District food officer TR Rawat said FSDA has circulated norms prescribed in the food safety act among temples to prevent preparation of substandard food in ‘bhandaras’.

Also, administration has coordinated with different temple committees in order to organise things peacefully as it would be the first time when FSDA would take samples from all stalls on Bada Mangal across the city. The sampling would be done during distribution. As per FSDA, the test result of the samples collected on Bada Mangal is expected to be received within eight days after which action would be taken. This year, there would be nine Bada Mangals falling in months of May and June.