DINAKARAN NEWS

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Fish traders to get lessons on ill-effects of formalin

The recent discovery of several kilograms of formalin-laced and spoiled fishes at Ukkadam Fish Market has put the spotlight on the hygienic standards practised by the fish traders.

Food safety officials inspecting the shops to detect formalin-laced and spoiled fishes at Pollachi on Sunday.

COIMBATORE: The recent discovery of several kilograms of formalin-laced and spoiled fishes at Ukkadam Fish Market has put the spotlight on the hygienic standards practised by the fish traders.

While the traders rule out possibilities of handling chemicals to preserve fishes for longer hours, the officials of the Food Safety Department stated that consuming formalin-laced fish might lead to allergies.

Based on the directions of the Collector K Rajamani, the officials of the Food Safety and Fisheries Department conducted raids at various places to prevent the usages of chemicals. On Sunday, the food safety department seized 20 kg of spoiled fishes from four traders in Pollachi.

The designated officer (food safety department) K Tamil Selvan said that the fish could stay fresh just for three to four days. However, the freshness would stay longer if formalin is used. He said, "The formalin is mixed with ice cubes to preserve the fishes. One could experience a pungent odour from the chemical-laced fishes and if cooked, the gravy emanates chlorine smell."

The department could find the chemical-laced fishes with a rapid detection kit. "A fresh fish will rebound if we press it. We are planning for an awareness meeting to educate the fish traders on health complications when consuming formalin-laced fishes," Tamil Selvan added. Frequent consumption of chemical-laced fishes could finally lead to cancer, he stated.

Recently, the officials seized nearly 70 kg of formalin-laced fish and around 430 kg of spoiled fish from the Ukkadam Fish Market.

On the other hand, the fish traders said that they are concerned about the health conscience of the consumers and claimed they are not using the formalin as a preservative.

President of Coimbatore District Fish Merchants Association H S Bawa said, "We are purchasing fish from various places including Odisha, Calicut, Mangalore, Ramanathapuram, Andhra Pradesh. None of the ice cube factories from the Coimbatore region is using formalin."

He said that they would be taking part in a meeting with the Food Safety and Fisher Department soon. "We are planning to request the officials to provide us with a rapid detection kit to identify the formalin content in the fish or ice cube," Bawa added.

Precautions to be taken before cooking fish

• Wash your fish thoroughly before cooking and discard the water.
• Cook fish thoroughly to 75°C as heat from cooking can also aid the removal of formaldehyde because it is volatile.
• After repeated washing also, if there is any kind of obnoxious smell or texture, report to concerned food safety authorities.

Collector instructs hoteliers to closely watch foreign guests

Collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish on Monday instructed hoteliers to keep a close watch on foreign visitors in the wake of spread of COVID-19 in India.

Chairing a second meeting here to review measures being taken by the Department of Public Health, Tirunelveli Corporation and other allied departments to combat the virus in the district, Ms. Shilpa said the infection spread through sneezing and coughing. Hence, the public were being requested to wash their hands with soap at least 15 times a day.

The hoteliers should keep their premises clean as guests from various parts of the world with different travel history, including visits to countries where COVID–19 infection were reported, might come for stay. Besides cleaning the walls, curtains, furniture, doors, windows, door knobs and water taps, they should spray disinfectants on the premises.

Those who visited China and other countries where the viral infection had been reported should go to the nearest government hospital to get appropriate treatment. Moreover, those who had cough, cold, fever and breathing problems should also get proper medical advice, Ms. Shilpa said.

Deputy Director of Public Health Varadharajan, City Health Officer Sathish Kumar, District Food Safety Designated Officer Jegadish and owners of hotels participated in the meeting.

Since the Collectorate attracted a large crowd on Mondays, as the public from various parts of the district came to submit their petitions, the entire premises was disinfected by sanitary workers.

4k kg adulterated paneer seized from Bihar buses

RANCHI: The district administration seized around 4,000kg of adulterated paneer along with 15kg of spurious ghee from five buses coming from Bihar in the early hours of Sunday. 

Ranchi's food safety officer S S Kullu said, "We had inputs from various shopkeepers that adulterated food items were being brought to Ranchi in buses, hence we carried out inspections at Booty More. While checking, we found around 4,000 kg of adulterated paneer from five buses coming from Hajipur, Bakhtiyarpur and Patna."

Interestingly, those working in the buses had no idea of the people involved in the scam. They said that they were told to unload the packages at certain locations, Kullu said. "We are trying to trace the culprits. We will take action as per the Food Safety & Standards Act and direction from the administration," Kullu added.

A spike in adulterated food items has been observed during festivals, therefore, the district administration formed a team and carried out inspection at various shops. Under the special drive being carried out from March 4 to 9, the team has visited more than 60 shops in the city and took 16 samples of food items, which have been sent to the state's food testing laboratory in Namkum.

The sub-divisional magistrate of Ranchi, Lokesh Mishra, said, "We are carrying out special drives at bus stops, sweet shops and railways stations to seize adulterated food items."

How illegal meat laundering makes India the largest exporter of beef

A large portion of the meat which gets exported comes not from slaughterhouses complying by Indian rules and regulations, but through meat laundering.

One of the biggest rackets in the country is of illegal “cold storages” or “meat processing” factories. In 2019, I went to Belagavi, Karnataka to answer a frantic call for help by residents who had uncovered several cold storages that were allegedly killing thousands of buffaloes illegally. 

I took the local politicians and went to these factories. Getting in was a problem as the owners had fled and locked the factories. However, I entered and we found ourselves knee-deep in blood with thousands of flies. The place was like the worst hell one can imagine.

Filthy meat factories

The factory wasn’t exactly a secret. The local police commissioner first denied its existence and then defended the police’s actions. The cows were smuggled in from Goa and then slaughtered in a field. The dead animals were brought into the factory and cut and then the filthy meat packaged and exported. My team and I unearthed a similar racket in Bihar: A locked ‘cold storage’ next to a police chowki. The owner was an exporter from Delhi. He had been exporting the meat for years with impunity. He fled the country.

The meat industry has three distinct components. First, there are slaughterhouses where animals are killed and skinned. Second, there are meat shops where flesh is sold in retail. Third, there are meat processing factories. After animals have been killed and skinned in slaughterhouses, they need to be hacked into pieces, deboned, packaged and refrigerated for export. This work is done in meat processing factories. Cold storages are part of the factories and usually just rooms with filthy ice slabs in sawdust-covered with blood. The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and Rules provide for separate licensing for each of these three activities.

Delhi has only one licensed slaughterhouse which has its meat processing unit at Ghazipur. But numerous meat processing factories have sprung up at Lawrence Road Industrial Area that process carcasses for export. Nobody had bothered to find out where the animals were being slaughtered, till the Delhi State Slaughterhouse Monitoring Committee, set up an inspection. The Delhi government has recently shut down two meat processing units in North Delhi owing to gross illegalities in their operation. The violations were initially reported to the MCD in June 2019 after a probe. The animal husbandry department refused to do anything. The order for cancellation of their licenses could only be done after the chief secretary of the Delhi Government intervened in January 2020.

For years, the ownership of the factories exchanged hands. None of these persons had a real claim in the business, nor did they even work there. This was done to confuse every licencing body so that, if ever a violation was established, the owners who live in Uttar Pradesh could shift the blame to some fictitious person, replace him with some other name and carry on this illegal business.

Rampant violations

A large portion of the meat which gets exported comes not from slaughterhouses complying by Indian rules and regulations, but through meat laundering. This is a new system of slaughtering animals illegally at unlicenced locations, packaging the meat for export, paying a small fine to the local body for flouting the rules and exporting the meat as “regularised”. This is happening across the country and is the main reason why India is becoming the largest exporter of beef in the world.

The new system of slaughtering animals illegally at unlicensed locations, packaging the meat for export, paying a small fine to the local body for flouting the rules and exporting the meat as “regularised” is the reason why India is becoming the largest exporter of beef in the world.

Slaughter and packaging of meat are governed by several regulatory regimes — Food Safety and Standards Act 2006, Factories Licencing laws of the states, Water, Air and Environment Protection Acts implemented by the State Pollution Control Boards and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 among several others. For exports, additional registration with Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) is required. Most meat exporters registered with APEDA bypass the Food Safety and pollution authorities either by bribing or taking advantage of the complete lethargy in these departments. Animals are bought illegally by butchers posing as farmers and buying truckloads of buffaloes from ‘farmers markets’ set up to help farmers exchange their animals.

These are then trucked to illegal slaughterhouses and killed in filthy conditions. The inspection of most meat processing factories reveals that they don’t even meet basic infrastructure requirements such as adequate flooring, ceiling, tiling, lighting and ventilation needed to operate a meat factory hygienically. Factory labourers were employed without proper employment records and were paid very little. Food safety laws had been violated at every stage.

Flouting norms

The Food Safety Department is required to regulate food processing businesses but not one case had been booked against the factory owners of the meat processing units in Delhi.

It is important for the health of ordinary Indians that these cartels of meat traders, as big as the heroin/ cocaine/smack and oxytocin mafias, are broken up. Export authorities must step in to stop meat laundering. There are State Slaughterhouse Monitoring Committees appointed by the Supreme Court. None of them work but the apex court must take monthly reports. The State has a duty to ensure that the slaughter of animals is conducted only in places duly licenced by the Food Safety Department, State Pollution Control Board and has a NOC from the local body. Moreover, it should meet the conditions mandated in the Slaughterhouse Rules 2001 promulgated under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.