Aug 28, 2019
Reuse of oil remains unchecked despite FSSAI regulations
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has launched Repurpose Used Cooking Oil campaign to enable collection and conversion of used oil into biofuel.
‘Long-term ingestion of food prepared using such oil can cause hypertension, diabetes, acidity, stroke and cancer’
Oil used for frying and discarded by hotels are often used for varied purposes. The height of the reuse of frying oil came to light when officials of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) stumbled upon several litres of used oil that were converted to pooja oil at Vellakovil in Tiruppur a few years ago.
The ‘manufacturers’ had sourced frying oil, used for frying items ranging from banana chips to chilly chicken, and converted it to pooja oil by adding scent and making other alterations.
Even after a year the FSSAI introduced regulations to avoid reuse of cooking oil, the enforcement is yet to come into effect.
As per the regulations, the oil used for frying should not be used for any form of cooking if the Total Polar Compounds (TPC), a benchmark for measuring the degradation of the oil when heated, is beyond 25 %. As per the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration) First Amendment Regulation 2017, the oil is not suitable for use if TPC is above 25 % . Also, used oil should not be topped with fresh oil.
According to FSSAI, repeated frying of oil leads to changes in physiochemical, nutritional and sensory properties of edible oil and the toxicity of TPCs is associated with several diseases such as hypertension, atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and liver diseases.
“Repeated heating of oil reduces the natural antioxidant level. Regular consumption of foods prepared using reheated oil can compromise antioxidant defence system in body. Long-term ingestion of food prepared using reused oil can cause hypertension, diabetes, acidity, stroke and cancer,” said P. Guhan, consultant medical oncologist and director of Sri Ramakrishna Institute of Oncology and Research.
Tamilselvan, Designated Officer of FSSAI in Coimbatore, said that the food regulator had instructed hoteliers, who used more than 50 litres of oil a day for frying, to strictly comply with the regulations and discard used oil to agencies that make biofuel out of it.
“Around 150 food business operators including bakers and hoteliers, who use more than 50 litres of oil a day for frying, have been identified by FSSAI. We have instructed them to comply with the regulations. We are also in the process of implementing Repurpose Used Cooking Oil, an initiative by FSSAI that will enable the collection and conversion of used cooking oil to biofuel,” he said.
M. Sivakumar, Secretary of Coimbatore District Hoteliers Association, said that members of the association were aware of the regulations and the health hazards of reuse of oil.
“Earlier, we used to sell the used oil to soap manufacturers. But we understood that the buyers may use such oil for other purposes. Members of the association have extended support to discard frying oil in safe manner as directed by FSSAI,” he said.
Dr. Tamilselvan added that food safety officers would check the TPC level in frying oils using a device by conducting random checks in restaurants and other places.
Restaurants reluctant to give away used edible oil to make biodiesel
Most restaurants sell their used oil to soap making companies for ₹35-45 a litre while officials are only offering ₹20.
Officials are undertaking the survey for 10 days, between August 20 and 30, to ascertain the exact amount of used oil that can be collected from various restaurants and hotels.
According to officials, there are around 1,000 registered restaurants in the district of which around 200 fall in the higher range category. “We are reaching out to restaurants and explaining to them the importance of biodiesel for the betterment of environment. The Haryana-based company which will be converting the used oil to biodiesel is offering ₹20 per litre while the soap companies are paying around ₹35-45 per litre,” Sanjay Sharma, food safety officer, said.
On August 7, additional chief secretary Anita Bhatnagar held a meeting with all food safety officials from various districts to finalise the plan to ensure that no restaurant is reusing edible oil multiple times for frying purposes. In the meeting, all officials were asked to do a survey and ensure that restaurants give away their used oil to make biodiesel.
A plant to convert used cooking oil into biodiesel has been set up in Bawal city of Haryana. It is expected that the biodiesel manufacturing plant in Bawal will convert 100 tonnes of used cooking oil a day into biodiesel.
“The decision was taken six months ago that no restaurant or hotel can reuse cooking oil more than three times. We are expecting to collect around 1,000 litres of used oil but for that, restaurants need to come forward. People need to understand the importance of environment friendly biodiesel and think beyond the financial gain,” Sharma said.
Officials have said reputed and major food chains have come forward to cooperate with officials but small eateries need to be convinced as well. The quality of oil can be checked by ascertaining its total dissolved solids (TDS).
According to officials, the maximum permissible limit of Total Polar Compound (TPC) in edible oil is 25%. Repeated frying changes its physio-chemical and nutrition properties which leads to the formation of TPC making it unfit for consumption.
3 months jail for supply of poor quality milk
A fine of ₹10,000 is also imposed
The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court on Tuesday awarded three months simple imprisonment to Sanjay Nakra, nominee of M/s. Parag Milk Foods Private Limited, Palamaner, Chittoor district, for selling substandard milk.
In November, 2014, officials of the Food Safety Department conducted a raid on M/s. Surya Rajendra Sangam Distributors, located at K.T. Road, Vijayawada, and seized samples of ‘Go Doubled Toned Milk Tetrapack’, supplied by M/s. Parag Milk Foods Private Limited.
Food Safety officer A. Srinivas Rao registered cases against the supplier as well as the seller on various charges. The officers have sent the samples to laboratory, which confirmed that the packaged milk was ‘unsafe’, said Assistant Food Controller N. Purnachandra Rao.
Distributor acquitted
The court also imposed ₹10,000 as fine and acquitted the distributor in the case.
FSSAI frames law to promote food donation
The purpose of these regulations is to establish a uniform national regulation to protect organizations and individuals when they donate food in good faith.
New Delhi: Food regulator FSSAI has framed a regulation to promote food donationby businesses and reduce wastage. "Food Authority has come up with the Food Safety and Standards (Recovery and Distribution of surplus food) Regulations, 2019, so as to provide a legitimate backup to the food donation in India," the regulator said in a statement.
The purpose of these regulations is to establish a uniform national regulation to protect organizations and individuals when they donate food in good faith.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) seeks to encourage the donation of food and grocery products to nonprofit organizations for distribution to needy individuals.
These regulations will be enforced with effect from July 1, 2020.
"India is the second largest food producer in world but on Global Hunger Index 2014, India ranked 103rd out of the world's 119th hungriest countries. Due to some protocols, food businesses also destroy food with smaller shelf life. Prevention of food waste and promotion of surplus food distribution is a global concern," FSSAI said.
To address the same, the FSSAI held a second round of meeting with 20 Surplus Food Distribution Agencies from various parts of the country to discuss the steps taken by the government to ensure safe distribution of surplus food. The first meeting was organised on July 30 which was attended by 13 agencies.
The FSSAI has started an initiative called 'Save Food Share Food Share Joy' to create a food recovery ecosystem. This initiative aims to bridge the gap between food companies, surplus food distribution agencies and beneficiaries.
One of the key features is creation of Indian Food Sharing Alliance (IFSA) - a network of food collection/recovery agencies in India, to create a pan India network of these agencies.
This network will serve as a common platform for this cause wherein all of them will be equally benefitted with regulatory support, food safety training and capacity building efforts.
"It will be mandatory for surplus food distribution agencies to register with the FSSAI on food licensing portal," the statement said.
Food Safety to Disease Diagnosis: 8 Tech Startups Solving India’s Biggest Problems!
Be it in a hospital or a college canteen, ideas for path-breaking innovations can strike you anywhere, at anytime. The win is in recognizing and following them through, as these individuals did to become changemakers of our society. You can, too!
It is often casually remarked that India is a country whose problems are both eternal and never-ending. And if not that statement, then its unmistakable twin is often proffered instead – India’s problems can only be fixed by the heart and charity, and not by innovative solutions and business models.
Both of these statements are, as even the smallest of research will easily reveal, fundamentally flawed. Neither are our problems eternal, nor is the solution dependant on ‘charity’. In fact, time and again it has been proven that almost all of our problems can be tackled, as long as someone has social impact in the heart, and a sound business plan in the head.
This is where the real problem actually begins – what does one do with a start up that can be profitable, and has a positive impact on society, but no funds to scale or no guidance to resolve roadblocks?
Luckily there are those addressing that as well. With expert guidance, capital funding and proper industry exposure, Villgro has been helping put exceptional social startups on the path to changing India for 19 years now – through its core incubation as well as through other programmes like INVENT (being run for, and in, the low income states of India), or iPitch- its deal discovery platform offering Rs 8 Crore investment for startups looking for seed to pre series A funding.
In 19 years, the ideas that Villgro has nurtured have changed the game in many areas – ranging from creating safe food at affordable prices to ensuring medical diagnosis comes to those who need it the most.
Here are a few of the many blooming startups from Villgro’s ecosystem:
“I was at a Pune hospital when this idea struck me. Dr Ayush Gupta, a prominent skin and tissue infection specialist, told me about a patient from a remote village. He had come in with something he called a ‘bacterial infection gone bad’. Apparently, his doctor back in the village, had diagnosed it to be a bacterial infection and had prescribed some antibiotics,” says Geethanjali Radhakrishnan, an entrepreneur who eventually started a tech venture to focus on providing quick and accurate medical diagnosis of wounds and infections.
Despite eight years of treatment, his wound worsened and the patient was advised amputation. When Dr Gupta checked the wound, he realised that it was a case of simple fungal infection, which could’ve been cured if diagnosed at an early stage. This made Geethanjali realise the importance of correct and timely diagnosis.
After some research, Geethanjali started Adiuvo in 2015. It is a unique health-tech company based in Chennai that has been driving substantial change in medical diagnosis, ensuring correct treatment from the very start.
Adiuvo’s state-of-the-art portable Point-Of-Care solution promises a rapid, non-invasive, reagent-less imaging system to assess and monitor Skin and Soft Tissue Infections (SSTIs). In other words, they manufacture an affordable handheld medical device, called the Skin-Scope, which uses machine learning to non-invasively detect and classify skin infections in under two minutes. This could be a massive improvement over the traditional culture technique where a diagnosis can take up to four days.
(Adiuvo was discovered at Villgro’s annual national social impact conference Unconvention in 2016. Since then, the company has been supported by the Villgro – Menterra platform.)
Government schools carry the stigma of sub-par quality of education. The problem however, is not always the lack of funds or adequate government support. It is the lack of access to real-time information about the schools across the country.
Owing to this, people face hindrance while improving on quality parameters or encouraging accountability.
Realising this problem, Onkar started Promorph that has developed and successfully implemented a smart system, ‘EmpowerU’. This system leverages technology and analytics to perform real-time monitoring and evaluation in schools. This is accomplished with a mobile application enabled with geo fencing, which works even in the remotest of villages, with zero internet connectivity.
As per the technology, a web dashboard provides instant analysis of the various parameters of a school like attendance tracking, evaluation of continuous and comprehensive evaluation system, midday meal, and asset monitoring among others. This helps schools make data-driven decision through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). It also performs the necessary actions based on in-built intelligence at the control room established in the district or the state.
“We aim to impact the lives of 2 million students by 2020,” says Onkar to Villgro and INVENT, which have been guiding the startup since 2018.
India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world. As per National Horticulture Database published by the National Horticulture Board, 2015-16, India produced a total of 90.2 million metric tonnes of fruits and 169.1 million metric tonnes of vegetables.
Despite the yields, India also stands prominent in food loss and waste. The post-harvest losses of major agricultural produce in India is estimated at Rs 92,651 crore ($13 billion) as per the food processing ministry data of August 2016.
And among the various reasons, the lack of infrastructure, insufficiency or unavailability of cold storages, are the major ones.
“The lack of cold storages often pushes farmers to sell off their produce at the earliest at whatever rates they get, thus reducing their scope of getting fair remunerative prices,” says Niraj Marathe, who founded CoolCorp as a solution for this problem.
“We are focused on building small cold storages that run sustainably on grid or solar power for marginal farmers. The objective is to help low-income farmers earn more money for their produce, instead of selling them at throwaway prices, because of the lack of storage,” he adds.
Based in Baroda, CoolCrop has established its footing in almost five states, providing cost-efficient, decentralised solar-powered micro-cooling stations at farm-level, which can be used by a farmer group or a co-operative. CoolCrop also provides a market analytics software tool in the form of a mobile app or SMS service. The service helps the farmers know the estimated price of their produce over the minimum storage period, so that they can decide when and in which market to sell their produce to maximise the value of harvest.
(CoolCrop is a Villgro | Renewable Energy incubatee)
Started by Vinayak Nandalike, Yostra Labs Private Limited is a healthcare technology firm that has been pioneering smart innovations to make healthcare effective, affordable and sustainable.
With a major focus on diabetic patients, they provide affordable diagnostic devices to enable mass screening of patients for peripheral neuropathy (permanent damage to nerves in the feet, owing to diabetes), as well as affordable treatment options for diabetic foot ulcers.
As an alternative to the conventional, expensive and bulky diabetic peripheral neuropathy screening devices that often require trained healthcare workers to operate, Yostra has two affordable and portable products, Sparsh and Kadam.
Sparsh is a diagnostic device which treats diabetic peripheral neuropathy. Kadam, on the other hand, is a therapeutic device responsible for reducing the healing time of chronic wounds.
(Yostra is a Villgro | Health incubatee)
Three hostel friends, Vatsal Dusad, Shubham Gupta and Arpit Jain graduated from IIT-Delhi in 2014, to find themselves working in various jobs in the education sector. Though their experiences were varied in the sector, a single recurrent problem kept troubling all of them. This eventually brought them together to start Blackboard Radio.
“We realised that while students in tier 1 cities have a culture of talking in English, that is not the case in Tier 2 or 3 cities. While their grammar and vocabulary might be strong on paper, there’s a huge gap in confidence and delivery when it comes to conversation. Blackboard Radio basically wanted to bridge this gap with an AI-powered, personalised spoken English coach, just a click away,” says Vatsal, one of the co-founders.
This technology enables conversational-English mastery by providing interactive, personalised instruction to young children from all socio-economic backgrounds via a basic smartphone. “The objective was to transform Indian students into global citizens. This will not only enhance their communication but also instill confidence opening new doors to an array of employment opportunities. We were an iPitch investee and that led to incubation at Villgro, and to say the least, it has been an absolute game-changer” he adds.
Amit Saraogi and Clementine Chambon started Oorja in 2016 as an energy services company focused on replacing diesel engines with affordable, reliable solar energy systems for productive power in rural markets.
In other words, Oorja designs, installs and operates solar energy systems to replace diesel engines used on farms.
“Replacing diesel engines, using energy as a catalyst for economic development and creation of jobs, and combating climate change–these are the three core elements of our mission,” says Amit.
Oorja’s first innovation was a pay-per-use irrigation service called Oonnati, that is 20 per cent cheaper than diesel-pumps and provides year-round water for marginal farmers.
“The support from Villgro has been tremendous – the team is committed to helping us grow to newer heights and I would recommend all early stage startup founders to apply for iPitch to witness a steep curve in your business growth”, adds Amit.
Although Raav Technologies was started in 2018, the idea was born a few years back, as four college-mates, Rahul Kumar, Abhinandan Bhargava, Alphonse Dhas Antony and Varshnee Raj sat in a college mess, complaining about the questionable quality of food.
“Discussing the bad quality of food served in our mess, as is done in maximum college canteens, we came up with the idea to bring forth a technology that can analyse the quality of any organic sample within seconds. Eventually, we realised how this could benefit the food supply chain in the larger sphere,” says Rahul.
For this, Raav leverages the technology of spectroscopy by using machine learning and AI to deliver accurate information like the freshness cycle or any scope of adulteration, all within 30 seconds. This can enhance procurement, mitigate inventory risk, and also enable quality-based payouts.
Speaking about the Villgro’s support throughout their journey, he adds, “We started receiving Villgro’s support back in December 2018 as part of Villgro & YES Bank’s YES Scale programme, which led to us being incubated at Villgro, whereby they helped us not just with a seed investment of Rs 40 lakh, but also guided us at every step of the way.”
8. Krimanshi
According to the Department of Agriculture in India, the national shortfall of cattle feed accounts to 40 per cent for dry fodder, 36 per cent for green fodder and 57 per cent for concentrate feed. Such a shortfall often amounts to unproductivity in under-fed cattle, and eventual economic loss for the farmer.
As a solution to this, Nikhil Bohra founded Krimanshi, a social enterprise that works in the field of dairy input innovations to manufacture high quality animal feed from surplus agriculture and food residue.
This Rajasthan-based startup that is being supported by Villgro & INVENT, upcycles food waste into nutritious cattle feed and fodder to provide affordable and round-the-year feed solutions to small dairy farmers without compromising on quality. This food waste is collected from various Agri hubs in the form of fruit leaves, crushed fruits, vegetable waste, etc.
Having incubated more than 275 enterprises as of 2018, impacting over 19 million lives, Villgro has inspired people to shift from a charity-driven model to developing the marginalised into stakeholders of growth. To do this, Villgro has re-created its own ecosystem of ‘inspiration to investment’, with initiatives like iPitch – an annual investment discovery platform that sources and invests in for-profit social enterprises in medtech, agritech, edtech, skilling, employability, cleantech and renewable energy.
Fortification touches 47 pc in packaged edible oil, 36.6 pc in milk: FSSAI
New Delhi, Aug 27 () Fortification of packaged edible oil and milk has gained momentum and reached 47 per cent and 36.6 per cent, respectively, food regulator FSSAI said on Tuesday.
Fortification is a complementary strategy to fight malnutrition under which the addition of key vitamins and minerals such as iron, iodine, zinc, vitamins A & D to staple foods such as rice, wheat, oil, milk and salt are done to improve their nutritional content.
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) chairperson Rita Teaotia stressed the need to revisit the mandate of the National Nutrition Mission with the aim to look beyond the Integrated Child Nutrition programme and put equal emphasis on other aspects that go along with nutrition.
"FSSAI is working in tandem with major National Programmes of Government of India to ensure fortification becomes integral to those programmes," she was quoted as saying in a statement issued by CII.
Teaotia said the FSSAI had rolled out the fortification standards for five staples -- wheat, rice, oil, milk, double fortified salt -- that are voluntary in nature at present.
Success has been achieved towards the effort in terms of oil and milk, she said at CII's national nutrition conclave held here on Monday.
According to the FSSAI, "47 per cent of the vegetable oil produced by top players in the refined packaged oil market is being fortified. 36.6 per cent of milk is currently being fortified".
FSSAI Chief Executive Officer Pawan Agarwal said food consumed by us should be good for the planet also, as sustainability is an important part of nutrition.He said, "When we refer to nutrition, we refer to healthy diet, but we should have a more holistic, sustainable approach than just talking about positive nutrition."
Junk the habit: That fruit juice may be doing your kid more harm than good
Infants and young children aged below two years shouldn’t be offered fruit juices – fresh or packaged. Those between 2 years and 18 years should also be discouraged from having fruit juices, fruit drinks or sugar-sweetened beverages. They should be given seasonal whole fruits instead for better health. This has been recommended in the latest guideline on fast and junk foods, sugar-sweetened beverages and energy drinks prepared by a national consultative group constituted by nutrition chapter of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP), the top body of child specialists in the country.
The consultative group has recommended that fruit juices/drinks, if given, should be limited to 125 ml per day (half a cup) for children aged between 2 years and 5 years, and 250 ml per day (one full cup) for those above 5 years of age. “And these should be given as fresh juices,” said Dr Hema Gupta Mittal, senior paediatrician at Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, who was part of the consultative group.
She said fruit juices – whether fresh or packaged ones - are high in calorie and sugar content. “Whole fruits help in development of muscles, and are good for dental health also,” she added.
On caffeinated drinks, the IAP guidelines say, intake of carbonated drinks, tea and coffee is to be completely avoided by children who are less than 5 years old. In schoolgoing children and adolescents, tea or coffee intake should be limited to maximum of half cup per day (100 ml) in 5-9 years, and one cup per day (200 ml) in adolescents (10-18 years), provided no other caffeinated products (cola, chocolates) are being consumed. The IAP group has suggested replacing the term junk food with a new acronym ‘JUNCS’ foods to cover a wide variety of concepts related to unhealthy foods. The experts said this has been done to include ultra-processed foods, caffeinated drinks and sugar-sweetened beverages among others in the category.
“Consumption of these foods and beverages is associated with higher body mass index and possibly with adverse cardio-metabolic consequences in children and adolescents. Intake of caffeinated drinks may be associated with sleep disturbances,” says the IAP guideline. It has been published in the medical journal Indian Paediatrics.
The guidelines are significant given the rise in consumption of fast foods and sugar-sweetened beverages in Indian children due to easy availability, convenience, palatability, working parents and attractive presentation among others. A survey conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on 13, 200 children aged between 9 and 14 years documented that 93% of the children eat packaged food and 68% consume packaged sugarsweetened beverages more than once a week. As many as 53% consume these products at least once a day. Experts say all this has led to significant increase in the incidence of overweight/obesity, cardio-metabolic risk, high blood pressure, behavioural symptoms and dental caries among children. The IAP has backed a suggestion by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) advocating traffic light coding of all packaged foods as a measure to fight the menace of ‘JUNC’ foods in addition of developing separate guidelines for advertising and marketing of such products.
FSSAI CEO Pawan Aggarwal said that they have held discussions with the industry on a proposal to display red colour coding on the front of packets of products that have high levels of fat, sugar or salt. “The industry has certain reservations, and we are trying to come up with a consensus on how to implement it,” he added.
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