DINAKARAN NEWS

DINAKARAN NEWS

Tamil Nadu temples to soon get food safety tag for 'prasadam'

Major government run temples will now get certification from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India.

The Murugan temple's panchamirtham prasadam now features FSSAI licence number, price, weight and best before date. 

Chennai: As many as 47 major temples in Tamil Nadu run by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department will get Food Safety and Standards Authority of India certification for their 'prasadam,' an official said on Friday.

Prasadam, a material substance of food, is a religious offering and is normally consumed by devotees after offering prayers. 

The exercise, aimed at ensuring quality and bringing in standardisation, began with the prasadam of the famous Sri Palani Murugan temple's (Dhandayuthapaniswamy temple) 'Panchamirtham' (a mix of banana, ghee, honey, sugar and dates).

"Palani Murugan temple was our pilot project. We have initiated the process of getting FSSAI certification in other 46 temples as well," the official said.

The Murugan temple's panchamirtham prasadam now features FSSAI licence number, price, weight and best before date.

On the reason for the initiative, the official said, "Quality assurance is our priority... incidents of people taking ill after consuming prasadam in some private temples drew our attention and we decided to go in for licensing."

In April this year, two women died and over 30 people took ill after consuming prasadam provided by a privately administered temple at Mettupalayam near Coimbatore.

Madurai Meenakshi Amman temple, Rameswaram Sri Ramanathaswamy temple, Srirangam Ranganathaswamy temple and Tiruvannamalai Arunachaleswara temple are among the major shrines of Tamil Nadu.

Tests confirm no formalin in Chennai fish: Fisheries minister

Fisheries minister D Jayakumar on Friday refuted reports that fish sold in Chennai contain the cancer-causing chemical formalin.

The minister told reporters that tests by Tamil Nadu Fisheries University and the food safety department had ruled out the presence of formalin — illegally used as a preservative — in fish samples collected at random from landing centres, fish markets and harbours in Chennai and surrounding areas.

Jayakumar was attempting to counter a public scare over accounts of fish laced with the chemical showing up in markets in Chennai and elsewhere in the state.

“People can test samples in private institutes if they are not confident of the tests by officials,” he said, adding that the government was taking measures to ensure that only chemical-free fish is available for sale in the state.

“Middlemen transporting fish from neighbouring states may have engaged in such practices,” the minister said in response to a question on traces of formalin in samples from Chintadripet. State food safety officials have been conducting tests of fish samples over the past fortnight on an alert from Kerala on seizure of a consignment of formalin-laced fish.

Jayakumar said the use of illegal preservatives like formalin would attract stern action. Noting that the formalin scare had caused fish sales to plunge, directly affecting fishermen, he appealed to people not to allow rumours to sway them. “Why would fishermen want to risk their livelihood by adopting such practices?” he said.

“Fishermen have mechanized boats with cold storage facilities to keep fish fresh for 10 to 15 days and transporters use refrigerated trucks,” he said. “There is no need to use formalin because the demand for fish is high.”

Mortuaries use formalin, derived from formaldehyde, to preserve bodies. Fish wholesalers sometimes illegally use it as a preservative, especially while transporting it to other states.

Formalin is commonly used to preserve bodies and prevent its decay in. Fish traders sometimes illegally use it as a preservative.

Officials of the food safety and fisheries departments had earlier in the week conducted checks in fish markets in Kasimedu, Chintadripet and Saidapet. None of 24 samples they tested with rapid-detection kits were chemically contaminated.

Sale of salani fish banned in Assam

Ban follows after fish samples found with formalin

GUWAHATI, July 10: Dispur on Tuesday banned procurement of frozen fish (commonly known as salani fish) from outside Assam and any sale of the same in markets for the next ten days.

The ban has been imposed after the Public Health Laboratory, Assam confirmed use of formalin in some samples of such fish collected by officials of the Commissionerate of Food Safety from Pamohi wholesale market in the city on June 29.

A solution of 35 to 40 per cent of water in formaldehyde or methanal is called formalin. Formalin is a strong disinfectant and tissue hardener and it is used for preserving biological and anatomical specimens. It is also used as an antiseptic in sterilizing surgical instruments. Use of such chemicals to keep fish fresh for a longer period causes serious health hazards for fish-eating population.

“After 10 days, we will again conduct drives, and if formalin is still found, we will punish them under the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. The original sellers will be contacted through the cash memos. Also, we will request the local sellers not to increase fish prices during this period,” said an official of the Food Safety Department.

The government is, however, reluctant to stop procurement of fish for a long time as a large number of people might be affected by such a step. The official, however, said if any fish seller is found using formalin for preservation of fish in future will be arrested and sent to jail for a minimum period of two years and maximum of seven years. The accused will also have to pay fine to the tune of Rs 10 lakh.

No U-turn on fish results: FDA

The Directorate of Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) in Goa on Friday said that there was no U-turn by the FDA with regards to tests conducted on fish in a raid on Thursday.

A statement from the FDA here said, they had received communication from Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to furnish details of sampling of fish and detections of contaminants of fish with Formalin if Positive; by lab reports.

''Also keeping in mind the reports of banning of import of fish from Chennai by the State of Assam due to Formalin contamination, and to ensure that the fish received by our State from Chennai is free from contamination the FDA officials had visited wholesale fish market at Margao and fish Market at Panaji on July 12, 2018, to draw the fish samples,'' it said.

Spot tests carried out on the samples indicated presence of Aldehydes, which is a family of organic compounds which includes formaldehyde. Formaldehyde in its liquid form is known as formalin. Among all the aldehydes, formalin (formaldehyde) is carcinogenic, if consumed in excess.

To rule out the presence of added Formaldehyde in the fish samples same were subjected to detailed testing at FDA laboratory at Bambolim and the results were found to be within permissible limit.

Spot test carried out for detection of Aldehyde is only an indicative test and unless the confirmatory tests are carried out in the Laboratory to ascertain the presence of formalin quality, fish cannot be declared as positive for Formalin content.

It is to be noted that Marine fish naturally contains certain amount of Formalin. As per the report published by Society of Fisheries Technologists (India) the concentration of Formaldehyde in Marine fish is found to be varying between 2.38 to 2.95 mg/kg; fish/shellfish 0.33 to 16 mg/kg.etc.

The Scientific papers published in the International Journal of Fisheries and aquatic studies shows that freshly caught fishes contains presence of naturally occurring formaldehyde in the range of 1.45 mg/Kg to 2.6 mg/Kg. However, the concentration may vary depending upon the commodity, the geographical condition, the marine waters.

The Laboratory analysis performed on the fish samples drawn from Margao wholesale market and Panjim market showed the results on par with the naturally occurring concentration for the different fishes tested ruling out the possibility of added amount of formalin.

In the afternoon on July 12, 2018, two more samples of Verli (silver fish) and Mackerels were drawn by the FDA officials from Old Goa and these samples also showed positive for Aldehydes by the spot test however, upon laboratory analysis no added formalin was detected.

FDA Goa on Friday received the "CIFTest" Formaldehyde detection kit for fresh fish developed by ICAR Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Mastsyapuri, Cochin, and the above two samples were also tested by the kit and the same did not show presence of formalin.

The FDA would continue its drive to test the samples of fish for presence of formalin contamination to assure the public of Goa that the fish available in Goa was safe for public consumption.

The public were requested not to panic regarding the quality of fish available in the state, the statement added.