135 samples of milk products seized

Chandigarh: Continuing with its drive against spurious food products, teams of food and drug administration seized 135 samples of milk and milk products from different parts of Punjab on Wednesday.

The teams collected 135 samples, including of desi ghee, curd, paneer, butter, khoya, lassi, burfi and cream, from various food business operators and forwarded them to the State Food Safety Laboratory in Kharar for analysis.

Food and drug administration commissioner and Tandrust Punjab Mission director K S Pannu said the Punjab government was taking the matter of food adulteration seriously and conducting regular inspections. He said that besides regular inspection of milk and milk products, special campaigns regarding other food items, like fruits, are also being carried out.

Pannu warned of strict action against those found indulging in malpractices. Punishment up to 6 years with a fine of Rs 1 lakh can be imposed on a food business operator whose products are found to be unsafe for human consumption, he said. In case of samples being found sub-standard, a fine of up to Rs 10 lakh can be imposed through a trial at the level of additional deputy commissioner of the district, he added.

Samples of milk, dairy items collected to check for adulteration in Punjab

As many as 135 samples of milk and other dairy products were collected from different places in Punjab by food safety teams as part of a drive against adulteration, officials said Wednesday.

The teams collected samples of 'desi ghee' (clarified butter), dahi (curd), cheese, butter, 'khoya', 'burfi' etc., from various food business operators across the state, they said.

The samples have been sent to the State Food Safety Laboratory in Kharar for analysis, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner K S Pannu said in an official release.

The state government is taking the matter of adulteration of food materials very seriously and regular inspections are being carried out, he added.

"Our mandate is to ensure availability of quality food and compliance with standards laid down by the FSSAI," Pannu said, adding that food business operators have been instructed to maintain strict hygiene and sanitary conditions.

He said besides regular inspection of milk and milk products, special campaigns focusing on food items like fruits, condiments and others were also being conducted.

The commissioner stated that action as per the Food Safety & Standards Act, 2006 would be taken against the food operators whose samples fail the quality test.

Eat Unchecked Fish And Take Care Of Your Health

Health Minister Vishwajit Rane has relaxed safety norms to ‘help’ traditional small fishermen from Maharashtra and Karnataka send fish to Goa. He has compromised on his ‘not negotiable’ stand on safety standards for imported fish. The importer is no more required to bring fish in safe conditions but will be presumed to bring safe fish if he brings it in small vehicles! The requirement is diverted from compliance with safety standards to the size of vehicles used in transportation. Anyone would be allowed to bring fish in small vehicles from areas upto 60 kilometres away from Goa’s borders. All these months Rane had been assuring Goans he would not allow import of fish from other states until importers strictly complied with the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) regulations. How come he has changed his stance? Are the interests of non-compliant fish importers more important to Rane than the health of the Goan men, women and children?

The flip-flop on the part of Health Minister Rane since the formalin-in-fish issue surfaced has eroded people’s trust in his ministry. His relaxation without establishing a strong monitoring system is going to make people lose whatever trust they have in his ministry about guaranteeing sale of safe fish. He changed his stance on import of fish only a month after he imposed a ban. Nothing has changed since the ban was imposed. The FDA has been doing random routine checks, which are more tokenism than real action for deterrence. The fish traders have won their battle for continuing with their trade without complying with any norms. The real losers in this mock battle between the Health Minister and fish importers were innocent Goan people who wanted nothing more than fish that was not going to harm their health. The Health Minister has given no such guarantee to the Goan people. The message from the relaxation is: Goans can go and eat the fish the traders are bringing and take care of their health!

Perhaps the state government listens to only organized protesters and the invisible lobbyists and wheeler-dealers. The Health Minister had maintained he would not succumb to any pressure and not lift the ban until the traders complied with regulations. But after the fish traders organized a protest a few days ago, their leaders came out full of cheer after meeting the Health Minister. What had passed on between the minister and the traders that was so effective as to make him relax the ban? Perhaps the Goans at large also need to organize protests to demand guarantees from the government to ensure safety standards for imported fish. They have suffered long enough. There is resentment among the people, for whom fish is a staple, and they have expressed their resentment by boycotting fish brought by fish traders. They are not fools not to understand that unsafe fish can be brought in smaller vehicles too. It can be brought in trucks from faraway states like Andhra Pradesh and Odisha and reloaded in smaller vehicles in areas of Maharashtra and Karnataka falling within 60 kms of Goa and brought to Goa without any checks to be sold in Goa’s markets. There are hundreds of examples that big traders have used the cover of ‘small businessmen’ to do their business in order to evade and avoid regulations and strict monitoring. There is a sympathy attached to the word ‘small.’ Fish traders and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane have used the word (small fishermen) to ‘exempt’ them from food safety standards and let them freely become conduits for big sharks!

Until last week Rane was applying his mind to give the charge of checking the quality of fish to Iva Fernandes, who had blown the lid off formalin in fish in July, in order to restore the trust of Goans in safety of fish. Informed sources saw it as punishment to Iva Fernandes as she was being asked to do a job which was supposed to be done by juniors. That showed that the health department and FDA were engaged more in their own games rather than in the serious business of assuring healthy fish to Goans. Rane should have set up a strong checking and monitoring apparatus before relaxing the ban. He has put the cart before the horse. He had promised to set up a state of art fish testing laboratory but there are no signs of it coming up any time soon. The Health Minister should not take Goan people for granted and condemn them to eating unchecked fish. He and the government might have to pay political costs for it.

Temple food and midday meals: need for hygiene protocols

FOOD SAFETY GUIDELINES FOR TEMPLES

Death by food poisoning is back in the news in Karnataka. As of the last report 13 people have died and over 130 people fell ill by consuming the prasad that was served at a temple in Chamarajanagar. This comes just two days after 87 students took ill after finding lizard in their midday meal scheme.

And the chief minister’s answer to this is to issue a circular, by the Religious and Endowments or Muzrai department of Karnataka, which states that all food served in temples, including those to be donated by private individuals, should be tested before being distributed to devotees. What will be tested and how it will be tested is for anyone to guess. It would not be surprising if tests refers to taste.

Neither test nor taste is a solution to the issue primarily because tests take way too long, are very expensive and the infrastructure is not available everywhere. Taste on the other hand is not an indication either, as good taste is not a guarantee of the food being free from contamination. In this case the methodology for contamination was very primitive but that should not lead us to the conclusion that things can be detected by taste.

The only way to avoid such situations from continuously recurring is to have a preventive system. It starts with having a secured premises. The following are the four basic points that need to be addressed:

Food should not be cooked in an open area as it often happens. There should be a closed area designated for the preparation of food and the cleanliness and hygiene of the place must be maintained.

The people cooking the food must be trained on food safety and hygiene and must have gone through the mandated medical tests before handling the food.

Storage and transport of the food must follow the guideline of moving only in closed containers and at the right temperature, following the tenement “hot must be hot and cold must be cold”

Fresh food must be served ideally within two hours (or 4 hours if the temperature is maintained) of preparation. Packaged food including the prasadam must have a date of expiry and non-toxic packaging material must be used.

The FSSAI had issued an order dated 29th January 2018 on the roll out of BHOG (Blissful Hygienic Offering to God) in states and union territories and the state of Karnataka has done absolutely nothing about it. It is time that we implement things that will be effective and capture the best practices across the states rather than just issue more government orders which cannot be enforced.