Food safety dept gets 2,300 home biz requests

For many, the lockdown was an opportunity to discover their entrepreneurial skills.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For many, the lockdown was an opportunity to discover their entrepreneurial skills. Homemakers, students and those who lost their jobs in the initial phases of the pandemic set up home-based food businesses. According to the officials of the Commissionerate of Food Safety, they received 2,300 applications from the capital city itself for starting home-based food and fresh fish businesses.

However, associations of other food business operators have raised a complaint with the Commissionerate urging them to take action against those who started the ventures without obtaining the mandatory licence or registration. Following this, the Commissionerate was flooded with applications for registration.Assistant food safety commissioner, Thiruvananthapuram, Alex K stressed that registration is mandatory for those running home-based food businesses. 

“Fines are collected based on their volume of business. While we encourage young entrepreneurs to venture into the food business, action will be taken if we receive complaints,” said Alex. Food safety authorities will provide Food Safety Training and Certification to home-based chefs. The certificate will ensure the chefs maintain the food safety standards mandated by FSSAI(Food Safety and Standards Authority of India).

According to city-based home chef Najiya Irshad, the authorities should focus on creating awareness among those venturing into the food business. “A majority are unaware that a licence or registration is mandatory. Often there are negative campaigns on social media which affect home-based chefs. We should be more organised and the authorities should keep track of malpractices in the food industry,” she said.

Pan-India Khoya survey after sample failures in Delhi: Food regulator

Khoya mawais is widely used in preparing most sweets

New Delhi, October 22

Ahead of the festive season, apex food regulator has launched a pan India quality survey of Khoya, an essential ingredient of all India sweets.

Khoya or mawais is widely used in preparing most sweets.

The survey follows a recent representation to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India by the Federation of Sweets and Namkeen manufacturers who said they were being supplied adulterated khoya.

A pilot survey in Delhi under the guidance of FSSAI recently showed sample failure of some Khoya samples which led to the FSSAI launch a national survey.

Samples were tested for acidity, maximum added starch, added sugar, urea, detergent and neutralizers. 

“There was some sample failure which is why a decision was taken to launch an all India khoya survey,” CEO of FSSAI Arun Singhal said today.

Commissioners of Food Safety of all states and UTs have been asked to earmark khoya mandis in big cities and test samples.

So far 700 samples from 15 states have been collected and more are on the way.

“Test results are expected in a month. These will help identify key hot spots for adulteration of khoya in India and strengthen state efforts in devising targeted enforcement drives to ensure a supply of safe quality sweets to every Indian,” FSSAI said.

DINAKARAN NEWS

 

Worried about hygiene of prasad at temples, UP govt launches operation BHOG

The government officials say the project has no interest in interfering in Temple management, it only seeks to train prasad makers and vendors to practice hygiene.

To ensure that devotees get hygienically prepared, healthy and safe Prasad at langars, bhandaras and bhogs at places of worship, Uttar Pradesh food safety and drug administration (FSDA) has launched the ‘blissful hygienic offering to god’ (BHOG) project in the capital city of Lucknow.

“Religious places are an integral part of the Indian society and the food served at these places is considered pure. But one has to also take care of safety. The FSDA wants all religious places to maintain hygiene while preparing prasad. That is why vendors selling prasad outside temples will be trained to prepare it hygienically,” said Shailendra Kumar Singh, designated officer FSDA, Lucknow.

He said that in the first phase, four temples- Hanuman Setu, Aliganj Hanuman temple, Mankamneshwar temple and Gulacheen temple in Aliganj-- and one Gurudwara at Ashiana have been selected for the training of prasad and bhog vendors as per food safety regulations.

“Our aim is to create awareness about best practices right from purchasing raw material to serving the food. We just want them to follow some simple things. For instance, cooks who prepare ladoos would be expected to wear gloves, aprons or caps, clean the utensils daily and use quality food material,” Singh said.

The FSDA will also certify the prasad prepared by the shops in front of these temples. The quality report would be shared with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and those not following the norms will face action.

“The project was conceived in 2015 when Sanjeev Patil, the CEO of Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai, Maharashtra found that foreign pilgrims were sceptical about the hygiene of the prasad and refused to eat it. The first pilot project was started at Siddhivinayak temple,” Singh added.

Singh made it clear that the project doesn’t aim to interfere in the daily work of temples. However, it would train prasad vendors and handlers and carry out routine inspection of temple kitchens.

“FSDA would be doing routine inspection of temple kitchens. However, some temples are sceptical about the whole concept of inspection but we can assure everyone that the department will only guide them for safe food practices and not interfere in their daily activities,” he said.

However, a temple office-bearer said on condition of anonymity, “Temples already take care of hygiene whenever the bhandaras are organised. While we haven’t got anything against the initiative, at the same time, it should be ensured that the food safety department cannot dictate terms to temples over the preparation of bhog.”