Jun 29, 2018
'FSSAI-industry collaborations to push food safety progressing rapidly'
The FSSAI-Industry collaborations, to strengthen science based food safety capability built in India are progressing rapidly, said Paul Hepburn, Programme Director Food & Refreshment, Safety & Environmental Assurance Centre (SEAC), Unilever, UK.
Delivering a on "Food safety Assessment – Novel Ingredients and Additives", Hepburn said that with the advent of global food supply chains, there is a growing list of novel ingredients and food additives which need safety assessment.
Hepburn outlined the critical importance of novel ingredients and additives for ensuing food safety, quality and food security, and explained the scientific safety evaluation principles that enable inclusion of these at safe levels.
The concept of 'exposure' – milligrams of the ingredient or additive per kg body weight of consuming human being, helped the audience appreciate basics of risk assessment. He showcased risk assessment tools and shared compelling safety evaluation case studies e.g. plant sterols for cholesterol control.
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Hindustan Unilever (HUL) had collaboratively set up CHIFSS (CII-HUL Initiative on Food Safety Sciences) and had subsequently signed a MoU with Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) in 2016 in order to promote science based food safety.
Pawan Agarwal, CEO, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India emphasized on how the Innovations in the food industry and increasing consumer interest in food safety, and the introduction of novel foods that are added to human foods, makes it imperative for the authority to have the safety evaluation of all the new ingredients through a rigorous scientific and risk assessment based framework.
He shared how FSSAI, as per Food Safety and Standards (Approval of Non-Specified Food and Food Ingredients) Regulations, 2017, regulated the approval process and safety evaluation of novel food ingredients.
Geetu Verma, Executive Director – Foods, Hindustan Unilever Limited took the audience through the journey of CHIFSS over the last two years.
She highlighted the areas where CHIFSS was active and how CHIFSS was firmly establishing a scientific and robust food safety environment in the country.
The Public lecture was attended by stakeholders including eminent scientists, government officials and professionals from academia and Industry along with students from related fields. Subsequently
Raids carried out at fish markets
KOCHI: Following successive seizure of formalin-laced fish consignments brought in from other states to Kerala, the health squad under the health standing committee of city corporation on Wednesday carried out raids at Ernakulamand Kadavanthra fish markets to check adulteration of fishes.
The raid was carried out by a team of health inspectors but they couldn't find the presence of formalin in a single fish sold in these markets.
"Raids started in the morning. We only found fresh river fishes in these markets and we didn't come across any fish varieties imported from other states. We used a rapid detection kit to test whether the fish available in the market is contaminated. We couldn't find the presence of chemicals or toxins," said Minimol V K, chairperson of the health standing committee.
Minimol said that in the coming days, raids would be carried out to all markets coming under the corporation limit.
"Just because we couldn't find formalin-laced fish today doesn't mean that nobody is selling contaminated fish. Following the raids conducted over the past two days, fish vendors are vigilant. So, they might have been excepting similar raids in this regard and might have removed those imported fish to safer places fearing seizure," said an official with the corporation.
Food safety department is also planning to carry out unexpected raids in fish markets in the coming days.
Sweetmeat shops under fire for unhygenic conditions in Guwahati
A team of food safety officials inspected a number of sweetmeat shops, restaurants, dhabas and food joints in Guwahati.
This is in continuation of the ongoing drive against food adulteration and sale of food in unhygienic conditions.
Sweetmeat shop inspected include Diganta Sweets (Last Gate), Kanhaji Sweets (Survey), Loyan’s Bakery (Survey), Gokul Sweets (Beltola), Sharma Sweets (Beltola), Prime Bakes (Survey), Rajbangshi Hotel (Rukminigaon) Ajay Hotel (Rukminigaon) and Shahuji Sweets.
A mustard oil godown of Century Mercantile Pvt Ltd was also inspected. “We have served improvement notices to all the inspected restaurants, hotels, and food joints. Food samples have been taken and those are being sent to the food analysts laboratory for necessary testing for food quality,” Tarun Das, Senior Food Safety Officer of the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA)reports The Assam Tribune.
Das informed that all the units checked on Wednesday had their kitchen hygiene standards below the required level for which improvement notices were served.
“We closed down one kitchen of Prime Bakes and Salasar at Megha Plaza near Basistha Chariali for poor hygiene,” he said, adding that mustard oil samples of ten different brands were collected from Century Mercantile Pvt Ltd for testing.
Last week the inspection team had conducted a drive on sweetmeat shops at Fancy Bazar and during inspection, the kitchens of Rookman Sweets, Salasar Mistan Bhandar and Sarma Sweets and were found unsatisfactory in terms of hygiene and sanitation.
All the shop owners were instructed to do necessary renovation within seven days and close the kitchens during the period accordingly.
“Rookman has sought more time for a thorough renovation of its kitchen and we have allowed that,” Das said.
Awareness meet on food safety act
TANGLA, June 27: An awareness meet on consumer law and food safety act was held at the MRSD office premises in Udalguri town on Tuesday. The meet, organized by the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) in collaboration with the Mission for Rural Skill Development (MRSD), was chaired by Kinkini Borah, secretary of DLSA, Udalguri. In her speech, Borah informed in details about the significance of legal provisions to protect the rights of each and every consumer in the event of complaints received from them. She also informed that a district-level consumer right forum would be formed as per the direction from the authority concerned and exhorted the people of Udalguri district to keep themselves updated.
The DLSA secretary also presented a picture of legal provisions to fight against adulteration of food. The meet was also addressed by senior advocate Jayanta Brahma, Sub-Inspector of Food and Civil Supplies, Parthapratim Hazarika and adviser of MRSD, Rewati Raman Sapkota.
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