Dec 2, 2018
Adulterated jaggery worth Rs 15 lakh seized
Salem: Food safety officials conducted a surprise raid in a jaggery shandy at Kandampatty here on Saturday and seized 40,000kg adulterated jaggery worth Rs 15 lakh.
The team led by district designated food safety officer S Mariappan said they had been conducting raids to keep the adulterated jaggery out of the market in view of Pongal, the three-day harvest festival that falls in January every year.
The team said they conducted raid at the shandy at Kandampatty based on a tip that jaggery manufacturers were adding chemicals such as hydros (sodium hydrogen sulphate), lime (calcium oxide), sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, super phosphate and alum to jaggery. “The jaggery manufacturers also mix sugar to enrich the sweetness of jaggery. This is harmful to people, especially diabetics,” Mariappan said.
He said the sodium hydrogen sulphate, which is used to whiten jaggery, was meant for the textile industry. “It is used as a bleaching agent in the textile industry,” he said, adding, “Jaggery manufacturers are using sodium hydrogen sulphate to bleach jaggery to make it appear white during the production. Sometimes, they also mix sugar to enrich the sweetness.”
The team has collected a few samples from the shandy and they would be sent to the government testing lab in Chennai to confirm whether they contain any chemical. “Strict action will be initiated against the jaggery manufacturers if the test sample confirms adulteration,” the district designated food safety officer said.
The officials also seized 40,000 kg jaggery from the shandy.
FDA suspends licences of 24 eateries in Pune
Hotel Naivedyam near Mitra Mandal chowk in Pune, is one among the 24 eateries whoes license was suspended.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has suspended the licences of 24 restaurants in the city for failing to comply with cleanliness norms, absence of any record on the use of pesticides and storing of edible food materials in unhygienic conditions.
Poor hygiene standards in the kitchen, failure to maintain and display health check-up record of the staff and failure to present record of pest control measures undertaken in the restaurants were among the reasons for suspension of licence.
Prominent restaurants whose licences were suspended included Naivedyam at Mitra Mandal chowk, Hotel Panchami (Satara Road), The Teres Hotel at Kondhwa, Hotel Samrat on Shankarsheth Road, Hotel Kalpana (Sadashiv peth),and Gokul Pure Veg at Sukhsagar nagar.
FDA inspectors found that the reezers used for storing raw materials were extremely dirty. At many restaurants, vegetarian and non-vegetarian food items were kept together.
It was also found that restaurant operators failed to keep waste bins in the kitchen as a result of which there was considerable filth in the kitchen in dirty condition. The kitchen staff was also found to be working without covering their head, food safety officer V V Rupanawar said.
“In the last two months, we carried out raids on a total of 472 restaurants in the city. We had issued notices to 449 restaurants and asked them to take corrective steps within the stipulated time. However, 24 restaurants failed to comply and hence we have taken action against them,” Rupanawar, food safety officer, Pune.
Suresh Deshmukh, joint commissioner (food) said, “We have ordered inspection of every restaurant in the city. Restaurants which fail to comply will have their licences suspended,” he said.
There are a total of 17,049 restaurants in Pune and 8,166 in Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial township.
Rajesh Shetty, owner of Naivedyam restaurant, Swargate, said , “We have been serving Pune for the last 42 years. There has been no case related hygiene of food or food poisoning. It is true that we have failed to respond to the notice on time but now we have submitted all the documents demanded by the FDA officers. So, there is nothing to worry about the hygiene of the restaurant.”
Sale of food items stopped for now
The licences of restaurants were suspended due to poor hygiene standards in the kitchens
THE NORMS
As per the Food Safety and Standards Act, hotels and restaurants must ensure that the kitchen conditions, as well as the cleanliness and hygiene of the chefs should be maintained as prescribed by FDA.
◼ Routine health check-up of the chef and staff is mandatory
◼ A hotel, restaurant or food stall must cook and serve food in clean utensils
◼ The kitchen serving areas must be kept clean
◼ Only potable drinking water must be used for cooking
◼ People handling food must ensure to cover their hair
◼ A record for use of pesticides must be maintained
◼ Food raw materials must be storied under hygiene conditions
472 restaurants in Pune have been raided in the last two months
449 restaurants have been served notices by the food and drug administration officials during the last two months
24 restaurants failed to submit clearance and hence FDA suspended the licences
135 restaurants have fulfilled hygiene and cleanliness norms
THE HOTELS WHOSE LICENCES WERE SUSPENDED INCLUDE
1. Gokul Veg, Sukhsagar Nagar
2. Atlantic Restaurant, Wanawadi
3. The Teres Restaurant and Banquet,Kondhawa
4. Naivedyam Restaurant, Mitra Mandal Chowk Swargate
5. Hotel Panchami, Satara Road
6. Samrat Hotel, ShankarShet Road, Swargate
7. Vighneshwara Pure Veg, Mandai
8. Hotel Kalpana, Sadashiv Peth
9. Hotel Vijayraj, Near city post
10. Hotel New Ambika, Katraj Chowk.
"We are serving food in Pune for the last 42 years and there is no case related to food hygiene or food poisoning at our hotel. It is true that,we have failed to comply with the norms inspite of being given time but now we have submitted all the documents demanded by FDA officers."
RAJESH SHETTY, owner of Naivedyam restaurant, Swargate
As per the Food Safety and Standards Act, hotels and restaurants must ensure that the kitchen conditions, as well as the cleanliness and hygiene of the chefs should be maintained as prescribed by FDA. Routine health check-ups of the chef and staff are mandatory. A hotel, restaurant or food stall must cook and serve food in clean utensils. The kitchen serving areas must be kept clean and only potable drinking water must used for cooking. Those handling food must also be sure to cover their hair.
FDA may act against food delivery apps
Following the footsteps of Food and Drug Administration, Mumbai, the Pune branch of the body is also likely to take strong action against online food delivery aggregators for delivering food from unlicenced shops, said FDA officials.
“We have asked for a list of restaurants from where the online food aggregators collects food and delivers. On Monday, we received list from two online food delivery platforms. There is a possibility of the food delivering aggregators delivering food from unauthorised restaurants. After scrutinising, we will take action in a week’s time,” said AJ Bhujbal, assistant commissioner (food) FDA, Pune.
Earlier in October, FDA had issued ‘stop work’ notices to more than 100 outlets listed on Swiggy, Zomato, Foodpanda and Uber Eats platforms. The action was taken under Food Safety and Standard Act (FSSA) 2006 as the restaurants were found selling food with required permissions.
FDA officers said that online food delivery aggregators were also responsible for the quality of food delivered. In July 2018,Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) issued a directive asking e-commerce sites to delist unlicenced and unregistered restaurants by September 30. Following this, FDA had inspected 347 food outlets in Mumbai where food was prepared. During the investigation, it was revealed that 113 food outlets were working without a license.These outlets were serving food through the food delivery aggregators which is proving hazardous to people.
The hidden killer
The Health Department and the Food Safety wing take a look at the dietary habits of the people and zoom in on checking the trans fat content in food.
You are what you eat.
Unhealthy eating, with excessive intake of processed and fried foods, very less of fresh fruits and vegetables and unhealthy cooking habits at home have been pushing up Kerala’s epidemic of lifestyle diseases and obesity. An estimated 28.5% of men and 32.4% of women are said to be either overweight or obese (NFHS-4, 2015-16). Over 20% of the population has diabetes, while hypertension prevalence has crossed 30%.
Till now, all initiatives launched by the State for the primary prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have focused on screening, early detection and lifestyle changes. For the first time now, the Health Department is looking at the role of dietary interventions in the community as one of the NCD preventive strategies.
Two weeks ago, the Health Department and the Food Safety wing announced that they would launch a joint initiative to rein in the high amount of trans fatty acids (TFA), salt and sugar in foods commercially available in the market.
The State’s initiative has now got a fillip with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) announcing on November 30 a new mass media campaign — Heart Attack Rewind — calling for the elimination of industrially produced TFA in food supply. Heart Attack Rewind warns citizens about the health hazards of consuming trans fat.
The campaign is to support the FSSAI’s global target of eliminating trans fat in India by the year 2022, a year ahead of the global target by the World Health Organization (WHO) for complete elimination of trans fat.
“The mushrooming of eateries, from pricey restaurants to ‘thattukadas’ and the crowds milling around these indicate that eating out as a culture has been growing in the State.
Till now, we have been focussing on preventing food adulteration and in enforcing hygienic norms and standards. But the FSSAI has been increasingly focussing on food quality, nutrition, safe eating and inducing behavioural changes in eating and has launched several nationwide initiatives in this regard. It is time the State stepped in to enforce regulations regarding what constitutes healthy food when it comes to food available in the market,” says K. Anilkumar, Joint Commissioner of Food Safety
With various studies indicating that hypertriglyceridemia (elevated triglycerides in blood) is way too high among Keralites at 45% ,dietary interventions in the community that focus on reducing the consumption of fried and high fat, salt, sugar (HFSS) foods could not have come at a better time..
What are TFAs?
TFAs are naturally found in small amounts in beef, lamb, and full-fat dairy products but it is the artificial TFAs contained in food made using partially hydrogenated vegetable oils (PHVOs) that are the culprit here.
Hydrogenation is a process typically used by the industry to improve the flavour stability and keeping qualities of oil. Partial hydrogenation reduces the amount of saturated fats in oil, which are deemed unhealthy.
By 1990s, various studies said artificial TFAs were worse than saturated fats because while both elevated the bad cholesterol (LDL), TFA also reduced the good cholesterol (HDL).
But the food industry prefers PHVOs as these are inexpensive and renders the desirable taste, texture and long shelf life to food. The typical foods which have a high TFA content are commercially fried foods like chips and baked goods like cakes, biscuits, cookies, puffs and the like.
Reheating of oil above 180 degrees also produces TFAs. Today, the major sources of industrial TFAs in people’s diets come from products which are made using PHVOs and fried food which are prepared in commercial fryers on the street where oil is repeatedly reheated.
Metabolic Syndrome
Reining in in commercially available food — both in organised as well as the unorganised sector — assumes more importance in the Kerala context because TFA has a direct connection to Metabolic Syndrome (MS).
The latest estimates (Harikrishnan. S et al., PLOS One, March 2018) put the prevalence of MS in Kerala between 24% and 33% by various international definitions. The study indicated that one in three or four persons in the State — predominantly women — have this condition. Metabolic Syndrome is a cluster of metabolic abnormalities — increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, abdominal obesity, abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels — that occur together, increasing one’s risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
Literature says that TFA consumption causes metabolic dysfunction. “It adversely affects circulating lipid levels, triggers systemic inflammation, induces endothelial dysfunction... increases visceral adiposity, body weight, and insulin resistance. In fact, TFAs seem to have a unique cardiometabolic imprint that is linked to insulin-resistance and Setabolic Syndrome pathways”.
What regulations say
The WHO recommends that trans fat intake be limited to less than 1% of total energy intake and has called for the total elimination of TFAs in global food supply by 2023.
In 2015, the FSSAI set the maximum TFA limit in foods in the country at 5%. It has now proposed to further limit it to 2% and totally eliminate TFAs from foods by 2022. The FSSAI says that its plan is backed by vanaspathi makers, food companies and bakery associations, who have all supported the move and have pledged to make the necessary changes. However, in the market, even the current upper limit of 5% TFA is not met by many industry players, especially those in the huge network of unorganised food manufacturers, and the enforcement has been pretty lax.
Measuring TFA content
The State Food Safety authorities too admit that measuring the TFA content in food has never been a priority and that the food analysis labs have only recently acquired Gas Chromatography machines that can measure the TFA content in foods.
At a recent consultative workshop on TFA reduction called by the Health Department, it was pointed out that major players in the food industry had already reduced TFA content in their products because they were compelled to follow the labelling declarations. It was the unorganised sector that needed to be educated about the harmful health effects of TFA and the effective alternatives to TFA that they could use .
What consumers need to know about safe food
As the health hazards of trans fats in diet are expounded on, consumers get wary about what foods contain trans fat or how much is too much.
While foods like beef or butter and other dairy products are bound to contain small amount of natural trans fat, it is the industrially generated artificial trans fat that causes health problems. Common sources of artificial trans fat include foods fried in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils (PHVOs); margarine and vegetable shortening; prepared foods like pre-fried French fries and doughnuts; and baked goods such as hamburger buns, pizza dough, crackers and pies.
Products made with artificial trans fat will have ‘partially hydrogenated’ oil listed in the ingredients. The WHO recommends that the total fat intake as % of energy should not exceed 30%. The intake of saturated fat as % of energy should not exceed 10% .
For cardiac patients, this is 7% .
Saturated fat
There is evidence that trans fat is worse than saturated fat. When it comes to cooking oil, the healthier options are polyunsaturated fats (vegetable oils) and monounsaturated fats, like olive oil. Sesame oil, which contains both mono and poly unsaturated fats in equal amounts, is also considered healthy. But cooking oils with more saturated fatty acids such as coconut oil are more stable than oils with unsaturated fatty acids.
During deep frying, oil undergoes degradation due to elevated temperatures above 180 degrees which results in changes in the physico-chemical, nutritional and sensory properties of the oil and the release of polar compounds.
Polar compounds
The estimation of Total Polar Compounds (TPC) is an accepted parameter to decide whether the oil is safe for further use. The FSSAI has fixed a limit for TPCs at 25%, beyond which the vegetable oil shall not be used.
Used cooking oil for making biofuel
Now, in what could be a win-win for public health, environment and energy security, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has launched an initiative, Repurpose Used Cooked Oil (RUCO), to recover used cooking oil (UCO) from vendors and food industry, and to use it for the production of biodiesel by the year 2022.
Coordinated action
India has the potential to recover 220 crore litres of used cooking oil for the production of biodiesel by 2022 through a coordinated action, it is believed.
An FSSAI press release said it may also look at introducing regulations to ensure that companies that use large quantities of cooking oil hand it over to registered collecting agencies to convert it into biofuel. It wants businesses using more than 100 litres of oil for frying, to maintain a stock register and ensure that UCO is handed over to only registered collecting agencies.
Talks held
The FSSAI is already in discussions with the Biodiesel Association of India to establish a nation-wide ecosystem for collection of UCO and its conversion to bio-diesel. Under RUCO, 64 companies at 101 locations have been identified to enable collection.
Special drive to educate consumers
Panaji: Consumers will be alerted about the best practices to be followed in food preparation to avoid adulteration and contamination during a month-long awareness drive on consumer rights and responsibilities.
Consumers will be educated about the contents of packaged food and street food by giving special attention to ingredients used. Goa Consumer Action Network’s campaign ‘Consume with care’ will also cover the rights of consumers under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, the Standards of Weights & Measures (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 1977, the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016.
Special efforts will made to alert consumers purchasing milk, edible oils and packaged drinking water to acquaint themselves with the Packaged Commodities Rules and guidelines of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) with regards to possible labeling violations.
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