Aug 20, 2018
Desist from making food fortification compulsory: SJM to FSSAI
The RSS-affiliated Swadeshi Jagran Manch said today that food safety regulator FSSAI should desist from making food fortification mandatory of packaged food as it will favour only few selected multi-national firms.
The FSSAI is making efforts to make it mandatory that all packaged food should be fortified by Vitamin A and D. It will only help the cartel of international Vitamin companies, SJM co-convener Ashwani Mahajan said.
In place of focusing the fundamental duty as per the FSSAI Act, the authority was now more keen to please the donors and sponsors of their activities which are not directed towards the mandate of the law, he further said.
The SJM alleged that FSSAI is allowing flooding of unauthorised and banned food products in the country.
Parl panel says 90% labs not accredited
- Ministry of Health told panel that food-borne illnesses were a greater health burden in India than malaria, HIV/AIDS or TB
- Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) found food poisoning one of the commonest outbreaks reported in 2017 apart from acute diarrhoeal disease
- More than 200 diseases spread through contaminated food ranging from diarrhoea to cancers, says WHO
New Delhi, August 19
One in four food samples in India failed the quality test over the past two years, while 90 per cent food testing labs were found unaccredited and many food operators were found to be either unregistered or running on expired licences.
These are a few of the damning observations by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health, which in its latest report has recommended restructuring of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the apex food regulator. It has said the regulator should be headed by a food scientist rather than a bureaucrat.
The report, “The Functioning of FSSAI”, red-flags food safety lapses, saying people’s fundamental right to pure food was being compromised.
“Existing food laws and policies are inadequate and weakly enforced. This poor implementation has resulted in rampant food adulteration and various food scandals. Substandard quality food has been reaching the market and causing irreparable damage to public health,” notes the panel. Major concerns documented include the presence of unregistered food business operators (FBOs) and FBOs operating with expired licences, lack of accreditation of food-testing labs and high levels of food adulteration coupled with low conviction rates under the FSS Act.
“The Food Licensing and Registration System (FLRS) should be updated regularly,” the committee said. It listed audit findings on instances of expired licences and registrations under the FSSAI Act in nine states and six Central offices of FSSAI.
“Of 7,056 licences test-checked in states, 2,616 (37.07 per cent), and out of 2,863 licences test-checked in CLAs, 626 (21.87 per cent) were expired. Out of 2,299 registrations test-checked in states, 698 (30.36 per cent) were expired,” reveals the report.
On food quality, the committee expressed anguish over low conviction rates, noting that one in four food samples failed the quality test in 2016 and 2017.
Even more shocking was the revelation that 65 out of the 72 (90 per cent) state food labs to which FSSAI and state food safety authorities were sending food samples for testing didn’t have the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories accreditation.
60% milk food samples seized in Punjab raids fail quality test
A whopping 60 per cent of milk and milk product (MMP) samples, including paneer (cottage cheese) and ghee, seized during raids across Punjab in the past 10 days have been found unfit for human consumption — 434 of the total 724 samples having failed the quality test.
Alarmed, Health and Family Minister Brahm Mohindra has asked the District Health Officers and Assistant Food Commissioners to take stern action against those violating the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
Tested at the government laboratory in Kharar, 20 per cent of the food samples seized have been found to contain spurious or adulterated milk, revealing the dark side of the “white trade” flourishing in a state that leads in per capita milk availability — 1,035 ml of milk per person per day.
According to the Animal Husbandry Department, there are 52 lakh buffaloes and 21 lakh cows in Punjab of which 70 per cent yield milk. The daily milk production is 360 lakh litres. Despite abundant milk, a sizeable number of units are manufacturing spurious milk and milk products. “While low-grade paneer is sold at Rs 170 per kg, poor quality ‘khoya’ is making its way from other states,” a senior officer said.
Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration, and Director of Tandrust Punjab Mission, Kahan Singh Pannu, said the authorities needed to be much more vigilant.
DARK SIDE OF THE TRADE
- 434 of the total 724 samples tested by Kharar lab fail the quality test
- 20% of the seized food samples found to contain spurious milk
- This despite Punjab leading other states in per capita milk availability
- With 52 lakh buffaloes and 21 lakh cows, state produces 360 lakh litres milk per day
Minister warns adulterators of food Items
With huge quantities of adulterated dairy products getting recovered from across the state, Punjab’s health and family minister, Brahm Mohindra, on Sunday warned those indulging in making spurious and adulterated milk and milk products in the state.
He ordered the District Health Officers and Assistant Food Commissioners to take stern action against the culprits under the provisions of ‘Food safety and standards Act 2006’ to curb the sale and production of adulterated food.
Giving details in Press communiqué, Mohindra said that during last 10 days, Food Safety Wing of Health Department has been conducted 650 raids with the help of other departments at Patiala, Bathinda, Baghapurana, Moga, Samrala, Kapurthala.
He said that district administrations, Punjab Pollution control board, Dairy Development Department, Police Department, Cooperation Department and Local Government Department have been asked to work in tandem to ensure availability of safe and nutritious food to citizens.
After the police on Saturday claimed that officials of the Patiala district health department’s food safety wing have been taking bribes since 2014 for allowing production of spurious items at a factory, the health minister also warned the officers of the health department and lab staff to work honestly and diligently to ensure the availability of quality food.
He said that no laxity will be tolerated in this regard and strict disciplinary action would be taken against all those conniving with perpetrators of the crime against humanity by compromising with the quality of food items.
Mohindra appreciated the efforts of food safety wing of the Health Department for initiating a campaign against food adulteration and stated that government is very serious to provide pure and nutritious food items to the citizens under ‘Tandarust Punjab Mission’.
He mentioned that all concerned department of the government have jointly embarked upon the campaign to supply pure food to the people of Punjab.
He said that this campaign shall continue till all the black sheeps indulging in such malpractices are brought to the books under ‘Food safety and standards Act 2006’.
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