Sep 18, 2018
250kg of gutka products seized in Trichy
TRICHY: The district food safety department in Trichy on Monday seized 250kg of banned gutka products, estimated to be worth Rs 2 lakh.
The products were seized from gutka wholesale dealer Prakash Shah of Nadu Gujili Street.
As directed by the commissioner of food safety and drug administration P Amudha, district food safety officials began a weeklong inspection drive to curb the sales and supply of gutka products.
The raid began in the morning and the officials found a few gutka products from a small-time retailer who was carrying it on a two-wheeler in Nadu Bijili Street.
They also found gutka products in some shops in the same area.
While questioning the shop owners, the officials came to know that it was being supplied by a wholesaler from Nadu Bijili Street. They went to his godown and found around 50kg of gutka products.
The officials conducted a raid at his house and seized 200kg of gutka products. The food safety officers confiscated the illegal products.
The product samples were sent to Chennai for testing. Officials said action would be taken against the wholesaler based on the results of test.
200kg of gutka products seized in Erode
Coimbatore: The food safety department in Erode seized 200kg of gutkha products worth Rs 2 lakh from a godown on Monday afternoon. The godown owner’s FSSAI license was immediately cancelled and the banned items were seized. The items will be destroyed once the samples test positive for nicotine content from the food testing laboratory.
The department was informed by the Erode collectorate which received an anonymous tip about a grocery shop in the district selling gutkha products. “The informer told us it was a shop in Veerapachathram, opposite the Mariamman Koil in the area,” said designated food safety officer, Kalaivani. “We decided to bypass the shop and raid the godown instead,” she said.
In Coimbatore, the food safety department raided around 55 Aavin booths across the district. They found 14 of the booths selling adulterated tea and many shops serving their bhajji and bonda in newspapers. “Food handlers were not using gloves,” said designated food safety officer Dr Vijayalalithambigai. “They were also using reused oil,” she added. “We have issued notices to the shops and given them food safety instructions,” she said.
Raid finds nearly 100 roadside shops use adulterated tea dust
Trichy: Having a cup of tea from any of the several roadside stalls in Trichy will not be a healthy option as the district food safety officials have found that the use of adulterated tea powder is rampant among them. They claimed that dust tea powder adulterated with aniline dye tartrazine — which is used as a colouring agent – were being supplied to about 100 tea shops in the city.
Health experts have warned that long-term consumption of food products in which tartrazine is added can possibly increase the risk of cancer. This isn’t the first time that adulterated tea powder has been confiscated in the district. A few years ago, the food safety wing had cracked down on its use in shops, but it was only in the rural areas of the district.
It was by chance that the designated officer (DO) of Trichy food safety department, Dr R Chitra, and other food safety officers came across adulterated tea powder on Monday as they were conducting raids to crack down on the sale of gutka. During the raid, they intercepted a small-time retailer who was carrying dust tea powder packets with him. On testing the tea powder he carried, the food safety department came to know that it was adulterated. When they questioned him further, they found that it was being supplied by a person from Mannarpuram. Without losing time, the officials conducted a raid at the wholesale dealer’s house where they found 200 kg of dust tea – estimated at Rs 1.2 lakh – and seized it. The confiscated tea has been sent to Chennai for further testing and legal action would be taken based on the report, officials said .
DO Chitra expressed shock at the prevalence of adulterated tea powder in the city. “Two of them – with the labels of Leeder’s Tea and Lion – were found to be adulterated. Drinking adulterated tea is extremely harmful to health and the colouring agent added is also carcinogenic. With such rampant supply of adulterated tea across Trichy it’s highly unsafe for people to drink tea from roadside food stalls,” she said. Chitra added that further raids would be conducted to ensure that the supply of adulterated tea was curbed.
Dean of Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital, Dr G Anitha, said that if a person consumed adulterated tea for a prolonged time, it could lead to several other health effects too. “Right from damage to blood vessels to formation of kidney stones and indigestion, there can be are severe health effects. For that matter, any food product with preservatives or colouring agents is harmful,” she stated. Sources in the food safety department said that the adulterated tea powder was transported from Coimbatore and directly supplied to wholesale dealers, which in turn was sold to tea shops. “The products are not available anywhere in the market in Trichy and are only sold to tea shops at a lesser rate,” the source said.
A food safety officer said that the manufacturers had been taking advantage of people demanding “strong tea” at stalls. “Many expect tea to have a strong taste. By adulterating tea with colouring agents, even by adding less powder, a cup of tea is made to look the way the customers demand,” the food safety officer added.
Meanwhile, Trichy City Tea Shop Owners Welfare Association organising secretary Ravuther Shah admitted that certain owners were purchasing adulterated tea since they were available at lesser rate. “Currently, a good brand of tea costs Rs 400 a kg while adulterated tea is sold at Rs 150 to Rs 200. In our association meetings, we've been warning the tea shop owners to stop procuring adulterated tea and we’re even issuing pamphlets to them regarding this,” he said.
Rotten wheat found to be used in making flour at mill in Ludhiana
The Punjab Food and Drug Administration on Monday seized more than 2,000 quintals of rotten wheat, which was allegedly being used for making flour, in Ludhiana district.
In a raid at a mill in Alamgir village, the team, assisted by dairy development officers, found that the damaged wheat, which had turned black and had been emitting foul smell, was being used for making wheat flour, an official said.
The team took samples of wheat, flour, 'maida' and 'suji' for further investigation. The mill was allegedly being run without a mandatory Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) licence, the spokesperson added.
Officials focus on safety, food quality in cinema theatres
Known as the paradise for movie buffs, the East Godavari district accounts for 135 screens located in 107 building complexes.
Joint Collector asks managements to improve amenities by October 5
Even as filmgoers in East Godavari district have been complaining of absence of safety measures and skyrocketing prices of foods and beverages in the canteens for quite a long time, the officials, at last have cracked the whip on the erring managements. Besides making it mandatory conducting safety checks periodically, the focus has also been shifted towards the quality and quantity of the foodstuff being sold in the eateries attached to the cinema halls.
Known as the paradise for movie buffs, the district accounts for 135 screens located in 107 building complexes. Even as some of the cinema halls of bygone era turned into function halls and shopping complexes in premier locations, the advent of multiplex complex culture has ensured that there was no sudden drop in the screens. Every now and then, the moviegoers express their dissatisfaction over the infrastructure and facilities in the theatres or the frequent hike in the entry fares.
For the fist time, a video-conference has been conducted with the managements of all the cinema halls in the district last week, in which Joint Collector A. Mallikarjuna interacted with the proprietors. Complaints from the filmgoers have come for wider discussion and standing instructions have been issued to the managements on the spot. “Except four cinema halls in Kakinada, none of the other theatres is following the norms prescribed by the Safety and Standards Authority of India with regard to the quality of food stuff being served in the theatre canteens,” points out Dr. Mallikarjuna, while expressing concern over the public health.
Similarly, only 90 theatre complexes are equipped with the fire-fighting devices and obtained permissions from the departments concerned. “From installing the equipment to the setting up of closed circuit cameras, a lot has to be done on the safety front. We have asked the managements to complete the procedure by October 5,” he says.
Cow milk standard changed; lesser fat and solids now acceptable
Minimum fat content in milk is now set at 3.2 per cent by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India
The Food Safety and Standards authority of India (FSSAI) has changed the regulatory standards of cow milk, making it uniform for the entire country as opposed to the state-wise standards earlier.
The new standards that came into effect on August 2, have reduced the earlier set standards of “milk fat” and “milk solids not fat.” While earlier the minimum fat content of cow’s milk was different for different regions. The highest standard for milk fat was set for Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh at 4 per cent and the lowest in Mizoram and Orissa at 3 per cent.
This figure has now been made the same for the entire country set at 3.2 per cent. On the other hand the standard for milk solids which was set at 8.5 per cent all over the country has been brought down to 8.3 per cent.
The director of FSSAI, Pawan Agarwal said that the changes are part of the continuously evolving system of standards and added, "Today we don't require the variation across states. That's why the new standards are uniform for the country now." He said that the new standards will make sale of milk easier for cow milk sellers.
Veena Shatrugna, former deputy director of National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, says that the new standard eases the selling process for cooperatives. Cow milk has 4.48 per cent fat content, so the change may be to accommodate desi cow’s milk, which has lesser fat content as compared to the Jersey cow, Shatrugna says. "There must be a demand from the owners of desi cows to recognise this as the ideal composition for cow's milk," she adds.
Cooperatives found it difficult to meet the older standards as the cows have to be fed special fodder to increase milk fat content. While Agarwal says that the new standard will not impact the nutritional value of milk, Shatrugna believes it can make a difference when milk is diluted to give to babies.
Ban on formalin-treated fish to continue
Dimapur, Sep. 17: In a huge setback for fish suppliers from south India, Nagaland will continue with its ban on fish and fish products treated with the chemical formalin.
Nagaland’s Food Safety Commissioner Himato Zhimomi has announced that the ban on the sale of fish treated with formalin will continue in the state.
Sale of fresh fish and fish products including crustaceans treated with formalin, which is a highly toxic chemical and injurious to health, was banned in Nagaland on June 22 this year for a period of three months. The period of ban will expire in a few days but Himato Zhimomi has announced in a tweet that it would continue.
“Ban on fresh fish laced with formalin will continue,” Himato tweeted along with a snapshot of the department of Health and Family Welfare’s notification stating the reason for the decision.
“In exercise of the power conferred under clause (a) of Sub-Section (2) of Section 30 of the Food safety and Standards Act 2006, the undersigned hereby prohibits storage, distribution or sale of fresh fish products including crustaceans treated with formalin or other forms of preservatives in the state of Nagaland for another further period of 3 (three) months, with effect from September 23, 2018 or till corrective measures are taken,” the notification read.
Failing to comply with the ban is an offence and will attract penalty up to INR 10 lakh with imprisonment under section 59 of the FSSA, 2006, the notification added. The designated officers and food safety officers of the districts have been directed to strengthen surveillance in their jurisdictions.
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