Nov 5, 2018
25% food samples found adulterated
NEW DELHI: Data released by India’s food quality regulator, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) earlier this week, shows that nearly 25% samples of edible goods it tested this year were found to be adulterated or in violation of prescribed standards.
The samples included milk and dairy products, spices, cereals as well as branded food products. A total of 85,729 samples were sent, so far. FSSAI carried out the testing folowing a spike in complaints from consumers over quality and adulteration, said an agency official.
According to the data, 20,390 samples of the 85,729 sent to the agency were found to be non-confirming to prescribed standards. While agency officials maintain that Food Safety Officers is each state regularly test samples to check for compliance and also take recourse in cases of violations according to the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, experts claim that poor enforcement on the ground and a lack of awareness plague the process.
Consumer activist Bijon Mishra said the lengthy legal procedure involved in penalising violators provides an opportunity to the accused to keep doing business. “Law enforcement is very poor. It takes years to finalise a case and by that time, sellers keep on making profits. Moreover, people are also not aware. Hardly anybody complains about adulteration,” he added.
Umesh Sharma, an advocate, said enforcement of rules is very poor on the ground. “The issue is directly related to public health and the government should take serious initiatives to implement food safety rules,” he said. Data from the agency shows an abysmal conviction rate.
In 2017, the Law Commission had issued a set of recommendations regarding the issue. The panel had recommended that IPC Sections 272 (dealing with adulteration of food and drinks) and 273 (dealing with the sale of noxious food and drinks) be amended to make adulteration a serious crime. It was also recommended that depending on the gravity of the offence, punishment can include life imprisonment and the minimum sentence should be six months’ jail term.
The panel, headed by former Supreme Court judge B S Chauhan, also wanted amendments to Section 357 of the Criminal Procedure Code so that courts can order compensation for victims.
Diwali adulteration crackdown: FSDA seizes 41 suspect food samples
Meerut: With Diwali around the corner, the Food Safety and Drugs Administration (FSDA) has started working on ensuring that city residents do not fall prey to adulterated sweets and other food items consumed during the festive season.
The officials of the food safety body have seized as many as 41 suspected samples of food items in the five-day long drive.
“We have taken as many as 41 samples of food items from various sweet shops over the last five days. We also destroyed 125kg rasbhari, 60kg of sweet cake and 1 quintal coloured sweets to safeguard people from consuming adulterated food items,” said Archana Dheeran, designated officer, FSDA, Meerut unit.
FSDA teams are conducting regular raids at sweet shops and have also been conducting awareness programmes at schools, colleges and NGOs in Meerut.
“Our main focus has been towards sweets, mawa, khoya and food colour being used in sweets. We have destroyed the food items which looked adulterated, and took samples of those which were suspected,” said Dheeran.
“The samples have been sent to the Lucknow laboratory and the report will come in a month’s time based on which we will take action as per the law,” Dheeran added.
FSDA seizes 1,200 litre of adulterated milk in Handia
ALLAHABAD: A team of Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA) officials, on Saturday, raided a dairy involved in manufacturing of adulterated milk and other items in Handia.
The team seized 1,200 litre of milk adulterated with potash, detergent, skimmed milk powder and other chemicals.
As per reports, the accused Babadin had been running the illegal business under the name of Baba Natural Dairy since past one year. He had to supply milk to several sweetmeat shops for the festival of Diwali.
Chief food safety officer KK Tripathi, said, "We caught Babadin using powdered milk, chemicals and washing powder to make adulterated milk and cheese. He used to mix synthetic fat in the skimmed milk powder and sell the product at high rates to his customers and individuals. He had increased the produce after an increase in demand for ahead of Diwali."
Tripathi said that milk adulterated with potash and detergent could lead to chronic diseases.
The team collected samples of milk and by-products from the dairy and sent them to the laboratory through a messenger instead of following the official procedure.
Tripathi said the aim is to obtain lab report without any delay to expedite the proceedings in a court of law.
Staff crunch impacting Ambala food department work
AMBALA: The food and drug administration department here lacks staff to cover the entire district. Till date, the department has collected nearly 60 samples of which nine have failed quality tests at the food laboratory in Karnal. The process of testing the food quality takes 14 days. Meanwhile, it has been observed that the shopkeepers here have started to stock sweets before Diwali.
"I have two districts to cover - Panchkula and Ambala. Lack of staff is affecting inspection work and we are unable to cover all the areas of the district. Till date, we have collected nearly 120 samples from Ambala and Panchkula. In Ambala, we have destroyed nearly 3.5 quintals of synthetic and unhygienic sweets.
"As per the law, the collected samples are sent to the food laboratory in Karnal and we receive results only after 14 days. There is a possibility that by the time result of lab tests are out, shopkeepers will have sold poor quality sweets. So far, nine shopkeepers have been issued notices for failing laboratory tests," said food safety officer Subhash Chander.
The official added that shopkeepers may use synthetic products to prepare sweets as production of milk in the district is not at par with the demand.
The FDA has been active since the start of the festive season, however staff crunch is a major obstruction in their work. It is because of this, the probability of consuming sweets made of synthetic product gets high.
FSSAI serves notice on nine shops
Officials of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India inspecting a shop in Coimbatore on Saturday
As the festival of light is just around the corner, the Food Safety Department on Saturday inspected small and large manufacturing units to check the quality of sweets and savouries sold.
Officials of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) seized sweets that were made with artificial colourants beyond the permissible limit and lifted samples for laboratory examination.
B. Vijayalalithambigai, designated Officer of FSSAI in Coimbatore, said that 68.5 kg of sweets that were found with excessive use of artificial colourants were seized during the inspections. The foods safety officers also seized 35 litre of reused oil and 13 kg of packaged sweets and savouries that did not have label as mandated by the FSSAI Act.
“Notices have been served to nine shops during the inspections for various violations. We have lifted four samples that will be sent to a Government laboratory for examination,” said Ms. Vijayalalithambigai.
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