Sep 10, 2018
How I managed to go gluten free
Diagnosed with Celiac disease, an author shares the diet modifications that helped her manage the condition
I was diagnosed with Celiac disease almost nine years ago. At the time, I was clueless about the autoimmune disorder and the way it would alter my life in the years to follow. I began by researching online and became a regular on websites such as Mayo Clinic, John Hopkins and the Chicago Hospital Celiac Disease Centre. The first thing you’re told when you’re diagnosed with this condition is that since gluten is a trigger, you must eliminate it from your diet. But going off gluten entirely is easier said than done. This was in 2009-10, when there weren’t as many gourmet or organic stores as there are today. Family and friends helped me locate a few places that stocked gluten-free food products and I felt better prepared to take on the condition. Soon, I was reading labels before adding things to my shopping cart. But even the few gourmet stores I managed to find, had little idea about what ‘gluten-free’ actually meant. So I took the initiative to educate them and also started experimenting by including gluten-free ingredients in regular dishes.
Navigating food choices
Being a South Indian, my regular diet offered numerous natural gluten-free options. But figuring out what was truly gluten-free and healthy from the traditional Indian diet was a challenge. I realised that only sticking to rice, ragi and imported, packaged gluten-free foods wasn’t going to be enough. It did help in healing my gut but I was also putting on weight and was getting tired easily. Connecting with celiac support groups online, helped me find gluten-free food manufacturers in India.
I realised that I needed to include more whole grains, vegetables and fruits in my diet. By 2012, my meals included gluten-free ingredients such as millets, rice, seeds, nut flours, seed flours, buckwheat, amaranth and other root flours. Soon, I was having chapatis and puris made of gluten-free flour. Cost, nutrition and access to ingredients were factors that moderated my food choices. Once I made this shift, I realised I didn’t feeling fatigued or bloated anymore.
Leading a gluten-free life
As a person who suffers from Celiac Disease, here are a couple of things I always keep in mind:
1. Read labels: I have found hidden sources of gluten on food labels numerous times, but my greatest discovery was learning that compounded asafoetida in powdered form, contains wheat. Even if I know a product is gluten-free, I still read the label because sometimes, manufacturers can change an ingredient or claim something is gluten-free when actually, it isn’t. The main reason I insist upon this is because even though the FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) introduced labelling regulations in 2016, there is a lamentable lack of enforcement.
2. Plan ahead: I always plan my meals. Whether I am commuting, attending a conference or a meeting, I always ensure that I have my meals figured out in advance. I must admit that I have learnt to be a meticulous planner the hard way. Not having access to food you’re allowed can mean going hungry for hours together. Foods you can carry with you at all times, include nuts, energy bars, gluten-free sandwiches, fruits and now, you also have ready-to-heat-and-eat chapatis. I always check the menus of restaurants online before visiting them. When in doubt, I check with the waiter, restaurant manager or chef. I sometimes eat before attending events because there’s always a possibility that I won’t be able to eat anything that I would be offered. Also, if I am taking an international flight, I book gluten-free meals 24 hours prior to my flight.
3. Maintain a food diary: This has helped me discover what suits my gut. I discovered I am slightly lactose-intolerant and that coffee doesn’t suit me. I also realised I have to avoid excess dal and vegetables such as okra, spinach and brinjal.
4. Keep stress at bay: Stress triggers and aggravates autoimmune disease symptoms. So, as much as possible, I try to keep stress at bay. Whatever the cause of your stress, try to deal with it when you are healthy and best prepared to tackle it.
The writer is the co-author of A Gluten Free Life – My Celiac Story, and is also a special diets baker and consultant
Food Safety dept seizes 4000 litres of adulterated oil
During the spot inspection, an official statement said that the the party of defaulters were emptying damaged and expired five litre packs of edible mustard oil (Vinakya Brand) and illegally filling into non-food grade drums and barrels otherwise used for fungicides and insecticides for possible relabeling or resale.
1500 litres was seized from the premises and 2500 litres was recovered from a nearby godown. Samples of same were also lifted for laboratory analysis.
Meanwhile, taking cognizance of apprehensions of using synthetic food colour, this week, food safety officials conducted rigorous inspections and market checking in food markets of various parts of Srinagar district, during which one quintal Wazwaan prepared with synthetic food colours and 200 litre of spoilt milk were destroyed and also, ten samples were lifted during the drive.
Food business operators have been warned to desist from the malpractice or stern action under FSS Act shall be initiated against them.
Food safety authority notifies norms for audit via third-party agencies
In a bid to create a pool of auditing agencies, FSSAI had already given provisional recognition to 22 audit agencies
Food businesses can voluntarily have their units certified by FSSAI-recognised professionals
NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 9
In a bid to strengthen the safety surveillance system in the country, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has notified auditing regulations. This has been done to enable checks on compliance levels among packaged food companies and food businesses through FSSAI-recognised third-party auditing agencies.
Under these regulations, third-party safety audits will be made mandatory for certain food categories based on risk classification.
“While emphasising on self-compliance by the food businesses, to address the need to monitor such compliance, FSSAI is envisaging introducing audit of food companies by FSSAI-recognised auditing agencies,” the food safety authority said.
The Food Safety and Standards (Food Safety Auditing) Regulations 2018 outline procedure for recognition of auditing agencies, terms and conditions for recognition, duties of auditors, audit reporting and audit monitoring systems among others.
Risk classification
“The food authority shall specify the category or type of food businesses, which shall be subject to mandatory safety auditing, on the basis of their risk classification,” the regulations stated. The risk classification will be done based on various parameters such as food type, intended customer use, nature of the activity of the business, volumes of the business, and the method of processing.
Independently, packaged food companies, food businesses and institutions can also voluntarily opt for third-party food audits of their facilities.
Officials said third-party audits will not only help strengthen the compliance culture among food companies and businesses but will also help reduce the burden of regulatory surveillance for Central and State licensing authorities.
“A food business having satisfactory food safety audits report may be subject to less frequent inspections by the Central licensing or the State licensing authorities,” the regulations stated.
In a bid to create a pool of auditing agencies, the FSSAI had already given provisional recognition to 22 audit agencies.
The truth behind genetically modified food imports in India
The GEAC derives its authority from the 1989 rules to give effect to the 1986 Environment Protection Act, which, among other things, governs GM crops.
Are the regulators sleeping on the watch while processed food containing genetically-modified (GM) plant material is being imported into the country? In a study released at the end of July, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said it had detected GM material in 21 of 65 food samples it had tested from Punjab, Gujarat and the Delhi region. Of these, 16 samples were of imported food.
CSE’s director general Sunita Narain said in a press release that the imports were happening despite “our government says it has not allowed the import of GM food products.” Its deputy director general Chandra Bhushan blamed the regulatory agencies. “(T)he FSSAI has not allowed any GM food on paper, but has failed to curb its illegal sales.”
The government has indeed allowed the import of food and feed containing GM material subject to the approval of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) in the environment ministry. The GEAC derives its authority from the 1989 rules to give effect to the 1986 Environment Protection Act, which, among other things, governs GM crops.
It is true that the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has not allowed the import or manufacture of GM food “on paper” or otherwise, though it is empowered to do so under Section 22 of the FSSAI Act 2006. The health ministry issued a notification in 2007 asking the GEAC to continue regulating GM food as the FSSAI hadn’t framed the necessary regulations nor had the necessary expertise. The GEAC held FSSAI’s powers in abeyance through regular notifications till it decided not to in its meeting in March. It transferred to the FSSAI the nine applications it had for import of herbicide-tolerant and insect-resistant soybean and rapeseed oils from Monsanto Holdings, Dow AgroSciences and Pioneer Hi-Bred Seeds.
These companies sought approval for import of oils from plants containing their “events.” An event is the term for the location on a plant chromosome of a foreign gene that helps produce desirable proteins (for, say, herbicide-tolerance or insect-resistance). The GEAC was not abdicating its responsibility by passing on the import applications. The Supreme Court had, in August 2017, directed the FSSAI to frame regulations and guidelines for GM food articles and get Parliament’s approval for them. It passed the directions on two writ petitions filed by the anti-GM activist Vandana Shiva.
The tests that the CSE conducted to detect GM material in food—Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction—is flawed, according to Pradeep Burma, HoD-Genetics at Delhi University. He said it lacked “rigour in experimental design and analysis.” The manual for the testkit used by the CSE in its investigation recommends three control reactions: positive control, negative control and extraction control. Only the first two had been done. (A positive control is a test of the sample with GM DNA fragments, a negative control is one with a sample—say, soybean oil—that does not contain GM DNA material, and extraction control is a test only of the reagents used for testing to rule out contamination). Burma, who studied CSE’s test data, also pointed out other anomalies that were sent to the CSE for comment on August 8 but no reply has been received.
Lalitha Gowda of the Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysuru, said her team had tested oil samples sent by the GEAC. The first test was in 2007, when the Solvent Extractors’ Association (SEA) had applied for permission to import oil from soybean containing foreign herbicide-tolerance and insect-resistance genes. Gowda recalls centrifuging the samples to obtain a pellet of residue. A PCR was done on the residue sample. “We could not get DNA from refined oil. It was impossible to obtain DNA or protein. We said it was not absent but it was not detectable.” This is recorded in the minutes of GEAC’s June 2007 meeting giving import approval to the SEA. Gowda was CFTRI’s chief scientist till retirement in 2014. Gowda says CFTRI’s tests were rigorous. Apart from the three controls, they would do environment control (to detect the presence of contaminant DNA in the lab’s atmosphere) and template control. And just to make sure that the instruments were not acting up, they would spike a sample with ordinary soy DNA. When the instruments detected it, they were assured they had not obtained false negatives.
Between the health ministry’s notification in 2007 and March, when the FSSAI took over, there were 56 meetings of the GEAC. A review of their minutes shows that the GEAC dealt with import applications, and complaints, quite diligently. Companies that owned the proprietary GM traits for herbicide-tolerance or insect-resistance— most GM crops approved for cultivation globally so far have either or both these traits—filed applications for import of products from plants containing those traits so that importers did not have to individually apply. These applications were filed by Monsanto Holdings, Bayer BioScience, Pioneer Hi-Bred, BASF India and Dow AgroSciences.
In April 2008, the GEAC adopted the final draft for safety assessment of food derived from GE plants. It was prepared by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. The guidelines were discussed at GEAC’s meeting the previous November. Several objections were raised by a member, PM Bhargava, known for his anti-GM stance. The draft was posted for public comments and the final draft was adopted after addressing them.
In May 2008, the anti-GM NGO, Greenpeace, complained to the GEAC about the import of Doritos Cool Ranch corn tortilla chips made by Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo. It said the presence of herbicide-tolerant soy and maize was detected in them. The GEAC formed a three-member committee. Greenpeace was called for a hearing, but did not turn up. When it was asked to turn in samples of the chips it had tested, it replied that the samples “were damaged” when its office was relocated in Bengaluru. Instead, it submitted a new sample of the same brand. The GEAC observed that Greenpeace had “not behaved very responsibly while making the accusation.” PepsiCo informed the GEAC, in reply to a notice, that it did not use GM produce for manufacturing any of its products in India, nor had it authorised import of its products from abroad.
Following the complaint, the GEAC alerted the directorate general of foreign trade—causing a consignment of Doritos corn chips from Taiwan to be held up at the Nhava Sheva port. The importer told the GEAC at its May 2009 meeting that Taiwan did not permit the cultivation of GM corn, though it allows import of corn and soybean oil from the US, where GM varieties of these crops are cultivated. On the declaration of the importer that the chips did not contain GM material, the consignment was allowed in, but the importer was warned of prosecution (under a foreign trade law) if the declaration turned out to be false. (There is no record of the GEAC asking the CFTRI to test the chips).
In December 2015, Suguna Foods (one of the largest poultry concerns in the country) sought permission for import of GM soybean meal for animal feed . In June 2016, the GEAC deferred a decision on the application pending comments from the FSSAI and the animal husbandry department. There is no mention of the application in subsequent meetings.
Following applications from at least 10 entities, including Godrej Agrovet, Suguna Foods and Shanthi Feeds for import of dry distillers grain soluble (DDGS) from GM corn (after alcohol is extracted), the GEAC formed a five-member subcommittee. Its guidelines were accepted at the January 2017 meeting and fresh applications were sought.
At the March meeting, the GEAC asked the Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (RCGM) in the Department of Biotechnology to frame risk assessment and risk management (RARM) guidelines, following an application for import of GM grain. A representative of the plant quarantine agency said the grains should be split or treated with high heat to devitalise them so they do not propagate, if by chance, they escaped into the environment.
The FSSAI has framed draft guidelines for GM food. It has also proposed labelling of food products if they contain more than 5% of GM material by weight.
The “unlawful entry” of food derived from GM plants, as the CSE has alleged, cannot be ruled out. Food inspection departments have not pro-actively checked for GM material in processed food. But the importers run the risk of prosecution if caught—for violation of the law; not putting people’s health at risk, because GM food has been found to be safe. CSE’s brouhaha seems to be just scaremongering.
Owners of five ‘alemanes’ fined for ‘making’ spurious jaggery
The Additional Deputy Commissioner, who is the Adjudicating Officer for Food Standards and Safety Authority of India (FSSAI), has imposed a fine of Rs. 50,000 on each of the five ‘alemanes’, jaggery making units, in Bhadravati taluk for allegedly producing spurious jaggery.
A team of officials from FSSAI and the Department of Health and Family Welfare raided the five ‘alemanes’ recently and had found that spurious jaggery was allegedly being produced there.
B.S. Shankarappa, Designated Officer of FSSAI, told The Hindu that instead of freshly extracted sugarcane juice the owners were using stale jaggery and stale sugarcane purchased cheaply.
The consumption of jaggery produced in this manner is harmful for human health. The samples of jaggery seized from these ‘alemanes’ have been sent to a laboratory for tests.
Cases were also booked under Food Safety and Standards Act against Ramesh, Shivanna, Narayanappa, Jalil Saab and Srinivas, owners of these ‘alemanes’.
After the hearing, Additional Deputy Commissioner fined them Rs. 50,000.
This March, the Additional Deputy Commissioner had fined owners of four other ‘alemanes’ in Bhadravati taluk Rs. 1 lakh on similar charges.
Mr. Shankarappa told The Hindu that FSSAI is regularly receiving complaints on the production of spurious jaggery in Bhadravati taluk.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)