Jun 7, 2019
Food Safety pitfalls
Added to these, scarcity of resources at the household level makes food safety promotion a daunting task.
The United Nations General Assembly in December 2018 resolved to celebrate June 7, 2019 as the first ever World Food Safety day. Given that food safety is the key to achieving Sustainable Develo-pment Goals (SDGs), the United Nations through World Health Organisation (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) intends to promote food safety as an important measure in national development. The theme for this year’s celebrations is “Food Safety: Everyone’s business”. When it comes to food safety we tend to see it as a manufacturers’ credence or regulator’s duty to ensure everyone gets safe food. It is important to realise that food safety is determined not only by how food is produced and delivered, but also by issues on the “demand side” — how consumers acquire, cook, store, and consume foods.
Why a new perspective?
Most cases of food-borne illnesses are preventable if food protection principles are followed right from production to distribution. However, this does not fully address consumers’ behaviours that could also introduce risks.
For instance, the WHO campaign — Five keys for safer food — that is extensively used for spreading hygiene messages among food manufacturers and handlers throughout the world, promotes personal hygiene, adequate cooking, avoiding cross contamination, keeping foods at safe temperatures and avoiding foods from unsafe sources.
Such campaigns may, however, result in limited protection unless food safety is also understood and promoted at the household level. Cultural, behavioural and contextual forces shape specific practices along the continuum — from food purchase to preparation and consumption to storage of leftovers for subsequent consumption.
In India, diverse food habits, practices and centuries-old traditions co-exist alongside the changes brought in by globalisation. Added to these, scarcity of resources at the household level makes food safety promotion a daunting task.
Food laws and regulation - Should we think beyond?
The Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has been spearheading efforts to tighten domestic food laws. While the regulatory and administrative framework is critically important, we also require effective interventions focused on practices at point of consumption or even in home kitchens. Food-borne illnesses continue to pose public health challenge in India, but most of them go unrecorded. Such routine food-borne illnesses may relate to a host of practices at individual and household levels — how food is procured (what quantity/quality and from whom), stored (with/without refrigerator), prepared and consumed.
Individual and social determinants — do they hold the key?
Unlike in many western countries, in Indian homes, semi-processed primary agricultural produce and raw materials are procured from the market before they are further processed and made suitable for cooking at home. In many rural and economically deprived homes, these are often bought in small amounts, usually from local vendors and not in packed forms. When food is sold loose, adulteration is a major food safety concern. Adulteration may be intentional or unintentional (a result of incidental contamination). In both forms, the quality or the nature of the food is altered and could even become harmful. All of us have encountered food adulteration at some point in our lives.
However, this problem is so normalised that we do not consider it to be a health hazard. And lack of awareness of existing food quality control regulations, has further accentuated the problems. Thus, there is a need to raise awareness about food safety issues to empower individuals to hold regulators accountable for enforcing rules against adulteration. But adulteration is only one aspect of food safety.
Hand washing, a behaviour closely linked with food safety, is routine in India, and it is often customary to wash hands in many cultures before handling food.
Studies at National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) show that a large proportion (90 per cent) of household food preparers wash hands before cooking, handling or eating food. Other activities that involve exposure to dirt, like mopping or dusting and handling cattle, are also usually followed by hand washing.
However, normative hand washing does not guarantee that foods are not contaminated, as a great deal of hand washing is largely symbolic and done without using soap. Our studies show that approximately 75 per cent of individuals wash hands only with water and often do not use soap. Some research studies say that soap can reduce the risk of diarrhoeal diseases by 42-47 per cent. The customary practice of hand washing can be strengthened by encouraging routine and universal use of soap.
Availability of safe drinking water is an important factor that is essentially beyond the control of the common consumer, but affects food safety. Many households in India do not have access to piped water. For many episodes of diarrhoeal diseases among adults and even deaths among children below five years of age, lack of protected water is an important reason apart from other factors such as sanitation and environmental conditions.
The emphasis on clean surroundings and personal hygiene has clearly gained traction with initiatives under Swachh Bharat Movement and these efforts and reiterative messaging should go on.
Cultural sensitivity - why it is the need of the hour?
Inadequate cooking, cross contamination and storage temperatures are also important food safety risks. Studies show that foods cooked thoroughly, not stored for too long or thoroughly reheated are safe for consumption. NIN’s studies in the past have revealed that as many as 80 per cent of households in India prefer to cook food twice a day, and more than half prefer to serve/consume food hot. It is also typical to reheat leftover foods before consumption, but such reheating is not thorough enough to ensure safety. An area of potential intervention is education regarding the importance of thorough reheating.
In many Indian homes, the domestic hearth is an area of purity and sanctity. However, with about 30 per cent of Indians living in poverty, most homes do not have a separate designated kitchen, such that living, cooking and eating occur in a common place or a verandah (corridor).
Studies also clearly indicate that in situations where cooking fuel is difficult to use, households may, in a bid to save energy, prepare large quantities of food in advance and then store it until needed and may not thoroughly reheat before consumption. Many households who used to cook using solid fuels like firewood, coal or cow dung cakes, which release smoke leading to lacrimation and nasal discharge while cooking posing a threat to food safety are now migrating to safe cooking fuels due to government’s Ujjwala Yojana and other schemes. This is a welcome measure.
Why everyone’s business?
Many challenges faced by countries like ours in addressing food safety concerns are multi-dimensional. Low consumer awareness and perceptions of despair could be important hindrances for ensuring safety of food at the individual and household levels. For motivating self-directed changes in individual or household level practices, people need to be given not only the scientific rationale to alter established practices but also the means and resources to do so. Stricter regulation, compliance with global standards of manufacturing, distribution and competitiveness, are necessary, but not sufficient to address the food risks. Unless systemic changes are brought about and enabling environments are created, the perceptions of helplessness may cause consumers to think that food safety measures are meant for others rather than themselves. We have to realise Food Safety indeed is everyone’s business as this year’s theme says.
Eating out? Avoid unhygienic eateries
PATNA: Food safety norms are finding no takers in majority of eateries which have mushroomed in every nook and corner of the city. The guidelines envisaged by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) are seldom followed in most eateries in the city.
According to FSSAI norms, cooks and other food handlers are not allowed to wear rings on their fingers. They are also supposed to use gloves and skull caps. Raw materials should be sourced from only licenced wholesalers or retailers. The ingredients used in making main dishes should also be displayed in the kitchens and cooking vessels should not be kept on floor.
However, the eatery owners do not seem to care much about these norms. Pankaj Kumar (35), who owns a Chinese food stall at Maurya Lok, said, “Who cares about hygiene? We are poor and we need to keep our stomach full anyhow.”
Vinod Kumar, who runs a stall of ‘panipuri’ near Fraser Road, too seemed less bothered about flies invading food items at his stall. “I have a family to run and this is my way of earning. Hygiene doesn’t matter to me,” he said.
Some restaurant owners, however, claimed that they follow food safety norms prescribed by the FSSAI. Roomi Quazi Ekta, who owns a restaurant at Dak Bungalow crossing, said he has strictly instructed his employees to sanitise their hands and wear hand gloves before entering the kitchen. “We do not serve anything which is harmful to the health of our consumers,” he added.
Residents too seem unaware about the manner in which food is prepared and served in hotels. One Madhuri Kumari (19), who was seen eating food at a roadside eatery at Maurya Lok on Thursday, said, “Hotels maintain hygiene but we cannot afford to eat there.”
A senior health department official said eateries and hotels in the city are regularly inspected. “We collect food samples from the eateries and hotels and take necessary action in case of violation of food safety norms,” he added.
State health department principal secretary Sanjay Kumar said people in food business are trained regularly so that they can adhere to food safety norms.
Kaushal Kishore, additional secretary in health department, said, “We had collected around 7,000 food samples from eateries and hotels across the state in the last fiscal (2018-19). Of them, 500 samples were found to be completely below the mark. Action is being taken against the eateries based on the nature of violation of food safety norms. The measures include penalty, prosecution and closure of erring units. We collected around Rs 17 lakh in the last fiscal from eateries violating food safety norms.”
He added, “The inspection is carried out either periodically or randomly. We will soon start video-based online inspection by food safety inspectors.”
Kishore said though the food safety wing of the state health department has only 14 food safety officers, a proposal for increasing the strength to 105 has been sent to the state government. “The central government has also sanctioned Rs 5 crore for upgradation of food safety lab in Bihar,” he added.
Ban on sale of gutkha, pan masala to continue in Tamil Nadu
The State Food Safety and Drug Administration department has extended the ban on sale of gutka, pan masala and chewable food products that contain tobacco and nicotine as ingredients in Tamil Nadu for
CHENNAI: The State Food Safety and Drug Administration department has extended the ban on sale of gutka, pan masala and chewable food products that contain tobacco and nicotine as ingredients in Tamil Nadu for one more year after the ban lapsed in May 23.
A gazette notification said, “In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (a) of sub-section (2) of section 30 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (Central Act 34 of 2006), the Commissioner of Food Safety hereby prohibits the manufacture, storage, transport, distribution or sale of all products chewable or otherwise, either flavoured or scented or mixed with any of the said additive.”
Govt must notify Food Safety and Standards Regulations: CUTS Director
According to a recently published NRAI India Food Service Report 2019, out of a total of 24.9 lakh food business operators in the country, only 4.67 lakh have FSSAI licence
The Centre must notify the Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2018 at the earliest, which will prove to be an important step in improving food safety standards in the country, George Cheriyan, a member of Central Advisory Committee of FSSAI and director of CUTS International, said.
The first ever 'World Food Safety Day' on the theme of "Food Safety, Everyone's Business" will be observed across the world on June 7, 2019, and the early notification of the regulations will promote and facilitate actions for food safety, he said.
According to a recently published NRAI India Food Service Report 2019, out of a total of 24.9 lakh food business operators in the country, only 4.67 lakh have a Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) licence.
The Rajasthan government had collected 124 food samples from January to May this year which were found unsafe and misbranded, Cheriyan said.
The Rajasthan State Human Rights Commission had also sought a report from the state government regarding rampant food adulteration and subsequent health effects.
Cherian said consumers have a right to safe, nutritious and quality food. Hence, there is an urgent need to ensure the availability of safe food for consumers.
Considering that a large number of people are ordering food online, the online platforms have a responsibility to register only FBOs with a licence on their platforms, he said.
FSSAI nod for 19 food-testing kits
Will release the first edition of the State Food Safety Index on Friday
In a bid to bolster the food testing ecosystem in the country, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has given provisional approval to nearly 19 Rapid Analytical Food Testing (RAFT) kits and devices.
This move will enable food safety officers as well as laboratories to get quicker and validated results for tests conducted on various categories of food products such as milk and edible oils, among others.
Pawan Agarwal, CEO, FSSAI, said, “We have created guidelines for approval of rapid testing kits, equipment or methods to strengthen the food testing ecosystem in the country. The first set of 19 such kits and methods has been given provisional approval.”
He added that this would foster innovation and also encourage start-ups to work in the food testing space.
New device
As part of the celebrations to mark the World Food Safety Day (June 7), the food safety authority will unveil one of such devices called the Raman Spectrometer (built by Oak Analytics). This is a light-weight battery-powered handheld device that can quickly identify various types of adulteration in edible oils.
Once approved by the FSSAI, State governments can use and equip their labs or food safety officers with these rapid testing kits and devices. Meanwhile, the FSSAI will also release the first edition of the State Food Safety Index, that measures the performance of the States on key parameters of food safety, on Friday.
Agarwal said, “I think this index will sensitise the States about the measures they need to take to strengthen food safety ecosystem in their respective States. We have also decided to release the State Food Safety Index every year on the World Food Safety Day.”
Performance of States
The State Food Safety Index measures the performance of the States on several key parameters such as compliance, food testing- infrastructure & surveillance and consumer empowerment among others. For instance, under the compliance parameter, the States are scored on promptness and the yearly increase in the number of licenses issued, modes of inspections used, number of samples lifted for testing and grievance redressal mechanisms.
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