May 10, 2018
Pawan Kumar Agarwal gets extension as CEO FSSAI
NEW DELHI: Pawan Kumar Agarwal was today given three months extension as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
The tenure of Agarwal, a 1985-batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre, has been given three-month extension beyond May 15, 2018, an order issued by personnel ministry said.
He was appointed as the CEO of the FSSAI in December 2015.
Ghee manufacturers, shops come under food safety lens
Trichy: The district food safety and drug administration department conducted a special inspection at the wholesale ghee shops and ghee manufacturing units in the city to check for adulteration recently.
Food safety officers stated that during inspection, they discovered a few packets where ghee was mixed with maida flour, semolina flour and oil. Ghee with such adulteration is generally sold for non-edible purposes and predominantly for lighting lamps.
But since a few such packets didn’t carry the information on whether the ghee was for edible or non-edible purposes, the food safety officials instructed the wholesale sellers to sell ghee packets, which had all the necessary details according to FSSAI norms.
A food safety officer, who had inspected around 70 wholesale shops and manufacturing units, said that he found two shops which sold ghee packets with no proper label. “Some of the packets which had adulterated ghee, did not have proper labelling apart from the brand name,” he stated.
Apart from having all the necessary details including the manufacturing date, expiry date, batch number, full name and the detail of the manufacturer, FSSAI registration number, the shop owners and manufacturing units have also been asked to mention if the ghee is for edible or non-edible purposes clearly in the packets. They were also instructed to make the necessary changes and failure of which would lead to the department taking an action against them.
We had also conducted an Information Education and Communication (IEC) campaign for ghee sellers to create an awareness of sorts,” the food safety officer added.
In fact this inspection was conducted a couple of weeks after district collector K Rajamani had issued an advisory to the general public on purchasing ghee.
He had stated that customers should refrain from purchasing ghee packets without all the necessary details mentioned in it. “People should not buy low quality ghee just because the price is less,” he stated in the advisory.
He further said that if the customers had any complaints, they could send an SMS or a WhatsApp message to the official food safety department’s complaints number 94440 42322.
FDA busts milk adulteration racket, one held
FDA team caught a milk vendor, while he was mixing water in milk packets.
He would remove about 100 to 200 ml of milk from each packet and refill it with tap water before sealing it with hot wax.
Mumbai: The Thane unit of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) busted a milk adulteration racket that was operating from a highrise in the Srushti area of Kashimira in the early hours of Wednesday.
Acting on a tip-off, a FDA team led by three FSOs swooped down on the ninth floor apartment in the MHADA area and caught a door-to-door milk vendor, identified as Machgiri Kaambla, while he was allegedly mixing water in milk packets using a syringe.
According to FDA officials, the accused would buy branded milk from distributors and then remove about 100 to 200 ml of milk from each packet and refill it with tap water before sealing it using hot wax. Apart from empty pouches of reputed
brands, syringes and other sealing material, the FDA team seized a total of 130 milk packets of one litre each, which were being adulterated at the time of raid.
“A case under the regulations of the Food Safety and Standards Act,(FSSA) 2006, and relevant sections of the IPC has been registered against the accused at the Kashimira police station." said FSO Manek Jadhav, adding that the samples of the adulterated milk had been sent for lab testing.
FSSAI bats for consumers on food choice, but sugar industry sees red
According to the proposed draft of Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2018, the packaged food companies will have to declare nutritional information such as calories (energy), total sugar and salt, total fat and trans-fat, per serving on the front of the pack. The food labels will also declare, per serve percentage contribution to RDA (recommended dietary allowance) on the front of the pack. At present, the draft is in public domain for suggestions and feedback.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is planning to mandate displaying red colour-coding on front-of-the-pack labels on packaged food products that have high-fat, high-sugar and high-salt content levels. Image source: Reuters
In an endeavour to provide healthy food choices for consumers, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is planning to mandate displaying red colour-coding on front-of-the-pack labels on packaged food products that have high-fat, high-sugar and high-salt content levels. The proposed draft has irked the country's sugar sector. According to it, sugar is the cheapest source of energy for a large section Indian populace. The sugar industry has opposed the FSSAI's move, saying there is no scientific evidence that proves that consumption of sugar is harmful for health.
According to the proposed draft of Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2018, the packaged food companies will have to declare nutritional information such as calories (energy), total sugar and salt, total fat and trans-fat, per serving on the front of the pack. The food labels will also declare, per serve percentage contribution to RDA (recommended dietary allowance) on the front of the pack. At present, the draft is in public domain for suggestions and feedback.
National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd (NFCSF) has said that it along with Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) have decided to meet the Health Ministry, Food Processing Ministry and the top FSSAI officials to oppose the draft policy. Members of the Indian Sugar Mills Association (Isma) and National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Mills represent both private and cooperative sugar sectors. "The proposed policy of red colour coding at the time, when the sugar industry is going through tough times is a wrong move," said Prakash Naiknavare, MD, National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd.
Reeling under the impact of falling prices and piling inventory, the sugar industry termed it as a wrongly timed move, and said that before coming up with such a policy or draft the thought should have been given about the sugar's per capita consumption in India, which is barely 20-22 kilograms, while the same goes up to 50 to 65 kilograms in western countries. They questioned that when the western nations are not thinking about it, why should we think on those lines.
Further, the industry said that sugar continues to be the cheapest source of energy in India, where the large population belongs to Below Poverty Line (BPL), therefore, red marking on food products will send a negative message to people.
Commodity market experts also feel the policy of colour coding on packaged food items will harm the industry. "If this (red) colour coding is implemented there would definitely be an impact on consumption pattern of sugar because (packaged food) industry will have to follow the rules. If we go back to last 1-2 years and even this year, there has been an increase in Sugar production. It will be a setback for the sugar industry. There would also be a reduction in farmers' remuneration as consumption will go down if the red colour coding system is implemented," says Vandana Bharti, Assistant Vice President, SMC Global Securities Ltd.
"We see that sometimes for 2-3 continuous years there is an overproduction of sugar, and sometimes there is a deficit. In my opinion, farmers should be informed if a crop is in surplus. They should be advised to switch to those crops which are more profitable to them. It will help in increasing the soil fertility as well as in maintaining demand-supply balance also," Bharti added.
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