Nov 14, 2018
Food safety team disposes of 25-kg peeled onions
Jalandhar, November 13
The food safety team carried out an inspection drive at various business food operators and collected 11 samples of food products including cheese, curd, pulses, oil, biscuits besides others, here today.
The team, headed by District Health Officer (DHO), Balwinder Singh and Food Safety Officer (FSO), Rashu Mahajan, inspected establishments at Ram Nagar, Gandhi Camp and near BMC Chowk.
The DHO said the inspection was the part of sampling drive started under ‘Tandarust Punjab’ mission.
He said during the inspection at a restaurant, the team found 25-kg peeled onions stored in an unhygienic manner which was disposed off.
Dr Singh informed that all samples had been sent to the State Food Lab and action would be taken accordingly.
Now, packaged foods industry will have to be true to its words
FSSAI to notify claims and advertisement regulations soon
NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 13
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will soon notify its final regulations on claims and advertisements for the packaged foods industry. This is aimed at making companies more accountable for their health and nutritional claims to protect consumer interest.
The regulator, on Tuesday, also released the interim findings of its milk survey. Less than 10 per cent of the 6,432 samples tested were found to have contaminants such as residues of pesticides (1.2 per cent), antibiotics, aflatoxin and ammonium sulphate.
Pawan Agarwal, CEO, FSSAI, said: “We will soon notify the regulations on claims and advertisements, which have got the final approvals from the Health Ministry.”
Through these regulations, FSSAI aims to put restrictions on the use of certain words on food labels — such as natural, fresh, original, traditional, premium, finest, best, authentic, genuine, and real — unless the products meet specific conditions.
With the implementation of these regulations, packaged food companies will need to ensure that any claims regarding nutritional or health attributes about their products are scientifically substantiated.
In addition, they will need to ensure that product advertisements do not suggest that their products were a complete meal replacement, or undermine the importance of healthy lifestyles.
The regulations will define norms for nutrient-content claims and those regarding non-addition of salt and sugar, besides specifying standardised statements for health claims for food companies.
Milk survey
Meanwhile, the food safety regulator released interim finding of the National Milk Quality Survey 2018, which stated that only 12 of the 6,432 samples collected were found to have adulterants such as detergents urea and hydrogen peroxide that affect the safety of milk.
Milk samples were also tested for 18 pesticides, 93 antibiotics and veterinary drugs, aflatoxin M1 and ammonium sulphate. “Less than 10 per cent (638 out of 6,432 samples) had contaminants that make milk unsafe for consumption. In all these cases, milk is getting contaminated due to poor quality of feed, poor farm practices, and irresponsible use of antibiotics… But it is restricted to a few pockets and in some States, and these can be addressed through targeted awareness-building initiatives,” FSSAI stated.
Agarwal, however, added that currently there are no regulations for ammonium sulphate in milk, and that FSSAI will consider if tolerance limits needed to be set.
The survey findings also raise concerns regarding quality parameters of milk. “About 19.6 per cent (1,261) samples did not meet the set limits for SNF. In another 3.4 per cent (218 samples) of the total samples, sugar and maltodextrin was found to be added,” it stated.
Agarwal said that quality issues were higher in raw milk compared to processed milk, and may depend on the breed of cattle, dilution through water, or rearing practices. “But we were surprised to find non-compliance of quality parameters in processed milk also. We will take this up with the processed milk companies and look at setting up a robust monitoring mechanism,” he added.
FSSAI bans animal-origin silver leaf in confectionary
There are apprehensions of silver leaf not being of desired purity and containing dangerous metallic impurities.
The glittery delicate silver leaves used on sweets and confectionery will be under scanner as food regulatory body, Food Safety and Standards Association of India (FSSAI) has asked states, including J&K to ensure the leaf used is not of animal origin.
The order is an extension of its earlier order issued in 2016 which had banned use of materials of animal origin in the manufacturing of chandi ka warq (silver leaf). “It (silver leaf) should not be manufactured using any material of animal origin at any stage and be in accordance with provisions of Food Safety and Standards (Contaminants, Toxins and Residues) Regulations, 2011, and Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011” the order had stated, directing states to submit action-taken-report of surveillance to FSSAI at earliest.
There are apprehensions of silver leaf not being of desired purity and containing dangerous metallic impurities. FSSAI has directed states to use its manual to detect the purity of this popular garnish used in confectionery industry.
The regulation has also specified the specifications of silver leaf. “It should be in the form of a sheet of uniform thickness, free from creases and folds. The weight of the silver leaf should be up to 2.8g/sq m, and silver content should be of minimum 999/1,000 fineness.”
Natural food has to be natural: FSSAI
NEW DELHI: Food companies cannot use words such as ‘natural’, ‘fresh’, ‘original’, ‘traditional’, ‘pure’, ‘authentic’, ‘genuine’ and ‘real’ on the labels unless the product is not processed in any manner except washed, peeled, chilled and trimmed or put through other processing which could alter its basic characteristics, as per new regulations of Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) that will be notified in the coming days.
Companies using terms which could mean ‘natural’, ‘fresh’, ‘original’, ‘traditional’, ‘pure’, ‘authentic’, ‘genuine’ and ‘real’ as their brand name or trade mark will have to give a clear disclaimer stating “this is only a brand name or trade mark and does not represent its true nature”, the regulation stipulates. “We are fully supportive of FSSAI’s efforts to improve nutritional standards in India. Along with the rest of the F&B industry, we are engaging with them to have robust regulations in place,” a spokesperson for HUL said.
The regulation also lays down criteria for certain claims which food companies can make in their advertising and promotions such as nutrition claims, non-addition claims (including non-addition of sugarsNSE -2.18 % and sodium salts), health claims, claims related to dietary guidelines or healthy diets and conditional claims. Packaged food companies cannot advertise products as complete meal replacement or undermine the importance of healthy lifestyle.
In case an advertiser wants to make claims for which regulations have not been specified in, they will have to seek approval from the authority. The new regulation prohibits food businesses from advertising or making claims undermining the products of other manufacturers as to promote their own products or influence consumer behaviour. There are strict penalty provisions for those misleading consumers.
Milk just safe, quality still an issue
17% Found Unsafe, FSSAI Plans Action
New Delhi:
The quality of milk sold in the country has come under the regulatory scanner with nearly half or 48.9% of samples tested by the food safety regulator found to be non-compliant with its standards. Though only 10% of samples were found unsafe, quality issues persist with 39% failing on compliance parameters raising concerns about quality of milk consumed in the country.
The regulator is particularly concerned about processed milk, with 46.8% processed milk samples found non-compliant with standards set by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). Of this, a significant 17.3% share of processed milk is unsafe. On the contrary, only 4.9% of raw milk samples were found having safety issues. The rest 45.4% of raw milk was found to be non-compliant with regulatory standards but safe for public health, according to the findings of the National Milk Safety and Quality Survey, 2018.
“We are surprised and particularly concerned that processed milk which is mostly from the organized sector is non-compliant and have a higher percentage of safety issues as compared to raw milk samples. We have the details of these processed milk samples including their brands and locations. We are doing a detailed investigation and will soon take action to resolve this,” FSSAI chief executive Pawan Agarwal said.
Agarwal maintained milk in India is “largely safe” though there are quality issues, which are being looked at by the regulator. The unsafe contaminants are coming mainly from “poor farm practices,” he said.
Estimates show that currently consumption of raw milk is much more because most of the population resides in rural area though processed milk is catching up fast with rapidly spreading network of organized players.
Findings of the survey show main contaminants causing safety concerns are related to presence of antibiotics, soil fertilizers like ammonium sulphate and toxins like Aflatoxin M1- found on agricultural crops such as maize, cottonseed and tree nuts – above tolerance level. More samples of processed milk were found containing all these unsafe contaminants, as compared with raw milk samples.
FSSAI hired a third party food testing lab, Vimta Labs, for conducting the survey based on a total 6,432 samples collected and tested from across the country over a period of six months between May to October, 2018. The samples included 41% processed milk and 59% raw milk. Of the processed milk, 60% were toned milk, 20% full cream milk, 15% standard milk and 5% double toned milk. Raw milk samples included one-third each of cow, buffalo and mixed milk.
The survey covered only liquid milk and not milk products.
FSSAI is now doing a detailed investigation, mainly on processed milk. “We are working out an action plan against the safety and quality concerns raised in the survey, mainly in processed milk. This will include periodic sampling, monitoring, facility audits by third party and checking of supply chain,” Agarwal said.
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