Oct 16, 2019
Food safety panel plans to lay healthy diet on students’ table
With childhood obesity and related health problems becoming a burning problem in the state, the Commissionerate of Food Safety has decided to tackle it head on.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With childhood obesity and related health problems becoming a burning problem in the state, the Commissionerate of Food Safety has decided to tackle it head-on. It is planning to implement various strategies to reach out to children, parents and teachers at a much more broader scale.
It has decided to constitute state-level and district-level committees to implement its strategies effectively. “For dietary-based intervention at the school level, we have a project called ‘safe and nutritious food at school’. But it is limited to selected schools. To reach out to a wider audience with the message of taking up nutritious food, new strategies are needed,” said Ratan U Kelkar, Food Safety Commissioner.
“Some of the plans we have in mind include appointing college students, teachers and parents as health and wellness coordinators, engagement of professional bodies and others. Also, we had a couple of meetings with the Civil Supplies Department to procure and distribute only fortified food from the public distribution system,” added Ratan.
To reach out to its targeted group, the Commissionerate is also planning to tie up with Network of Professionals of Food and Nutrition in India (NetPro.FaN), Indian Medical Association, Kerala State IT Mission, National eGovernance Division and others.According to Kelkar, some of the activities being planned at schools include bringing a change in school canteen policy, organizing eat right days, designing healthy plate/lunch boxes and snacks for children and others.
Meanwhile, in a brainstorming session organised by the Commissionerate at Thycaud government guest house, on Tuesday, participants said that school children were at risk of serious long-term health problems, including type 2 diabetes, heart ailments, cholesterol, among others. Some other participants pointed out that authorities concerned should have separate strategies for government and private schools.
“While students of private schools are generally found to be overweight, students of government schools are found to be undernourished. Also, the scope of behavioural change should be explored while imparting diet lessons,” said a participant. In the first-ever Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey India 2016–18, released by the Healthy Ministry in the first week of the month, the state has the fifth highest number of overweight adolescents aged 10–19 years per cent.
Food Safety: Your home kit for spot testing adulteration
Mumbai: The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India plans to develop a special Rapid Analytical Food Testing (RAFT) or spot testing kits which will give the spot results of food if it is adulterated.
“This new testing kit will also reduce the testing load on Food Safety Officers (FSOs) and laboratories by giving test results quickly,” said an FSSAI official.
FSSAI has also invited applications from entrepreneurs under its programme of developing RAFT Kit / Equipment / Method for the purpose of testing food. The apex food regulator has issued guidelines for the same, detailing the pro forma for filing the application.
Senior FSSAI official said while filing the applications the applicants should also produce proper justification for each product category of RAFT kit along with validation certificates. No application for general parameters like pH, density or routine laboratory equipment and accessories and so on will be accepted.
“Applicants should submit separate application for each kit, equipment or method and each application should be accompanied by separate application processing fee,” read notice issued by FSSAI.
Shailesh Adhav, joint commissioner, FDA, Food, said this kit will enable FSOs as well as laboratories to get results quickly and will also help in establishing food safety for the ordinary consumer. This is because results of tests conducted on various categories of food products such as milk and edible oils, among others, will be available readily, which often are time-consuming.
“During festivals, the most common victim of adulteration is khoya or mawa. Because of high demand, people often engage in spurious activities. But with the help of RAFT kit, it can be ascertained very quickly on the spot -- whether the mawa is adulterated or not,” he said.
Sweet makers asked to use only natural colours
As Deepavali nears, the district administration has asked sweet makers not to use artificial colours beyond the permitted level.
With Deepavali a couple of weeks away, preparation of sweets in bulk quantities has just begun. Hence, the district administration has asked the manufacturers and traders to use only natural colours and maintain quality.
The Food Safety and Drug Administration Department conducted an awareness meeting at the Collectorate on Monday in which sweet and savouries makers, bakery owners and other food makers and sellers participated.
Officials explained the ‘good manufacturing practices’ including maintaining hygiene in the kitchens and use of natural colours in the preparation of sweets and savouries to the participants. Also, sweets prepared using permissible and non-permissible levels of artificial colours were kept on display and sweet makers and traders were asked to stick to the norms.
Collector C. Kathiravan, in a press release, said that sweet makers should have obtained temporary licence to manufacture sweets and other items for the festival season, failing which action would be taken against them.
He said the kitchens should be neat and the makers should ensure the place free from mosquitoes, bees and other insects.
Also, workers involved in making the sweets should be clean and only protected drinking water should be used. “Only 100 ppm of permissible colours should be used,” he said and added that packing should not be done in printed sheets or in newspapers.
Mr. Kathiravan said the pack should contain the name and address of the manufacturer, manufactured date and expiry date and asked people not to purchase packs that did not contain such details. He also said that oil once used should not be reused and warned traders against using plastic bags for packing.
Complaints related to poor quality of food items can be taken up with the District Food Safety Authority at WhatsApp number 94440-42322.
Food dept raids various shops
In order to check food quality and correct packaging, officials of Food Safety department conducted raids at various places on Tuesday.
Food safety officer Yogendra Panday during one such raid said it is important for the citizens to make sure that before they pay for any food item it is important to check all the details on the packaging material.
He said, “The consumption and shopping for dry fruits and sweets increases as the Diwali festival gets closer. Taking cognisance of this we are conducting a campaign in the region. On Tuesday we took sampling of dry fruits from Suvidha store at Jogiwala. It was found that the packets of date among the dry fruits are supposed to expire in October 2019. It is our opinion that consumers also need to understand that as they are the ones who pay for the product, they should at least be informed about the state of the product.”
He added, “Consumers should also know about the packaging date of the item, expiry date, about the quality and nutrition value and ingredients. What is happening at most retail stores today is that they are only putting stickers of brands on the packaging, but are not following the packing rules, because of which public is being fooled. This is an important task of food department to enforce packing rules. Citizens too should not only focus on the brand name, but should also ensure the quality of the product inside the packing material.”
Director General (Law and Order) Ashok Kumar has also directed all district officials to support the campaign of food department against food adulteration.
Samples of gift packs taken for test of purity
Bhopal: A team of food safety officials collected samples of gift packs of a multinational confectionary company from the shop of company’s stockist in Shahpura.
The food safety officials also collected five samples of pulses, oil and spices from a popular restaurant in MP Nagar following complaint of adulteration. A person had complained that he had ordered food from the restaurant online and the dal in the food he received had an insect.
The food safety officials had collected eight samples of sweets and namkeen including gift items of a company on Monday as well.
The food safety officials once again appealed to all the traders/manufacturers not to sell adulterated food stuff, stale food or unsafe edibles of any kind or else legal action as provided under Food Safety Act would be initiated against them.
70-kg sweets destroyed
Cracking heavily on sweet shops, in the wake of the festive season, district SBS Nagar Food Safety team collected seven samples, besides getting 70 kg of sweets destroyed.
Manoj Khosla, Assistant Commissioner (Food), said Food Safety Officer Sangeeta Sehdev and he inspected several sweet shops at Banga and Gunachaur and took seven samples of coloured sweets and khoya-based sweets such as pink cham cham, khoya burfi, kalakand, milk cake, rasgulla and gulab jamuns. They destroyed about 70-kg of gulab jamun and pink cham cham as they were unfit for consumption.
Notices were also issued to four shops for not complying with the parameters laid under the Food Safety Act. Sehdev said violators would be dealt with iron hands as per law. Earlier, a special naka was also set up at Banga to check the supply of spurious food items coming from other states/districts. — TNS
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