Soapy milk, toxic apples: India's sour food safety record

(Reuters) - Bhim can't understand what he's done wrong.
Before dawn every day he joins hundreds of wholesale traders at Delhi's Azadpur Mandi, a sprawling, chaotic market where trucks blare Bollywood music, porters haul huge brown sacks of fruit and vegetables and hawkers ply tea and cigarettes.
His own trade is in rosy red apples, laced with calcium carbide.
Bhim says he's been adding chemicals to his apples for years to artificially ripen them after a long journey from the Himalayan foothills, despite being told that it causes cancer.
As far as he knows, no-one has ever died from eating his produce. So he can't understand why the authorities are pestering him now, and why he has to pay so many bribes to keep his business afloat.
"This is an age-old practice, trust me, I know. But suddenly doctors are claiming that it causes cancer. Come now, how is that possible?" he said, wrapped up in a woollen grey cap and anorak on a chilly Saturday morning at the Azadpur Mandi market.
"Everyone still does it. The only difference is that it's done very surreptitiously now. And let me tell you, it will never stop. Why would anyone want to harm their sales?"
An interview with a senior food safety official starkly illustrates just how far India has to go to enforce the regulations properly.
Although the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has banned the use of calcium carbide as it is carcinogenic, the senior official to whom Reuters spoke said "it is not harmful".
"Unofficially, it happens everywhere," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "How can the ripe fruit be brought from far away areas?"
During the interview, the official also had to check with someone on the phone whether calcium carbide was legal or not.
Such attitudes explain why India still struggles to make its food fit for consumption. From rat poison found in vegetables and Diwali-festival sweets laced with caustic soda, to batches of moonshine liquor that kill scores of people at a time -- adulteration is rife.
A report by the FSSAI in January found that most of the country's milk was watered down or adulterated with products -- including fertiliser, bleach and detergent -- used to thicken the milk and help give it a white, frothy appearance.
The report caused an outcry in the world's largest milk producer, where the drink is used for religious rituals and is a source of protein for hundreds of millions of vegetarians.
But that is just the tip of the iceberg. The same agency has also found that 13 percent of all food in the world's second-most-populous country failed to meet its standards.
"The problem is so widespread that everything is contaminated," said Savvy Soumya Misra of the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). "If everything has problems, there is no choice but to eat whatever is available."
A FEW BAD APPLES
After two decades of rapid economic growth and rising living standards, millions of Indians have a richer and more varied diet than ever before. There is a growing appetite for everything from French wine to sushi among the swelling ranks of urban middle classes, products that simply weren't available to their parents' generation.
But safety standards have struggled to keep pace in a country that still has more poor than anywhere else in the world and where modern supermarkets remain relatively rare.
A world away from the swanky restaurants of New Delhi and Mumbai, awareness about safety only slowly trickles down to the country's millions of small-time vendors.
Poverty tempts sellers to add dilutants such as water to products to make them go further. Cheap cooking oil is mixed with expensive oil, tea waste is mixed with new tea, and anything from urea to blotting paper is added to thicken the food sold at festivals.
Poorly staffed regulatory authorities can struggle to cope. Given the scale of the problem, only a handful of people are prosecuted for flouting standards, let alone jailed, rights activists say.
"In China, those people who were found to be contaminating milk with melamine, they were given something as severe as a death sentence," CSE's Misra said. "But here, we're not even giving them any kind of punishment. So how are they supposed to get scared of the authorities?"
In 2008 in China at least six children died and nearly 300,000 were made ill from drinking powdered milk laced with melamine, an industrial chemical used to give misleadingly high readings in protein tests. Two people were executed in 2009 for their role in the scandal.
QUICK BUCK
Food safety is often worse in poorer areas where ignorance and the temptation to make a quick buck are greater.
"Poor people don't care much about the quality. Whatever is cheaper, they'll buy it," said Ashok Kanchan, technical adviser at Consumer VOICE, a rights group. "They're just worried about how to fill their stomachs somehow."
Bhim, the apple seller, is a textbook example of what is going wrong.
Delhi's traders often source their produce from hundreds of kilometres away. In India, where highways are often potholed and jammed with traffic, and where storage facilities are primitive, up to 40 percent of perishable food rots before it can be sold.
Traders cannot buy fruit such as apples or mangoes when they are already ripe, because these would go to waste during the bumpy, un-refrigerated journey from the orchards. Instead, they buy the fruits and later ripen them with calcium carbide, a substance colloquially known as "masala", or "spice".
Using the white powder reduces a ripening process that normally takes weeks to a matter of hours.
Traders are also tempted to polish or dip fruit in artificial colours to make its appearance fresh for sale.
"The ones that shine are the rotten ones," said Ramdular, who has sold in Delhi's Azadpur Mandi for decades. "Looks good to the eyes, but ends up bad for the stomach."
Some traders at the market were willing to discuss such practices openly. Others only alluded to it in winks and nods.
"He's taken your picture, so you're going to have to shut shop now!" one trader shouts teasingly to another as a Reuters photographer clicked away among the fruit stalls.
GLASS HALF FULL?
Authorities in Delhi and elsewhere say they are cracking down on safety violations, from fining culprits to conducting surprise raids of food outlets. Raids are especially important during festivals, when bad batches of items such as sweetened milk or flour can send hundreds of people to hospital.
"The Delhi government is already working towards tackling this situation and now that we've picked up this report, the government will take hastier steps to tackle the situation," A.K. Walia, the state's health minister, said about the FSSAI's report on milk adulteration.
But enforcing India's food safety laws is a tough task.
"You can say that our laws are very good, but the implementation is very weak," said N.C. Basantia, director of the Delhi-based Avon Food Lab, which tests samples on behalf of government authorities.
Delhi, a city of 17 million people, has just 32 food safety officers and their job is all the harder because traders often see attempts to clamp down on bad practices as an attack on their livelihoods.
"Whenever the department gets active, there is a hue and cry in the market," a second safety official said.
Even assessing the scale of India's food safety problem has been controversial. After the FSSAI published its survey on milk adulteration in January, state government after state government spoke out to deny the scale of the problem in their region.
On the other hand, Basantia of Avon Food Lab said the samples he tested for the government may flatter to deceive.
"See, we can never be 100 percent sure about the food samples given to us, be it a private sector or a government study, because the samples aren't drawn by us," he said.
"Obviously the officials will give a very good sample to us, we'll test it and report it to them, whereas the rest of the lot that they plan to export or plan to distribute is probably all contaminated."
Despite all this, India's food safety record may actually be much better than it once was, largely because there is a growing awareness of the issue.
Indians are becoming more safety conscious thanks to higher literacy rates, clearer food packaging and a modernising retail sector. An explosion in 24-hour TV news channels in the past decade means coverage of safety scandals can run for days.
The FSSAI may have given a gloomy picture of India's food industry, but the organisation did not even exist before 2008, and is still in the process of upgrading laboratories with modern technology and training its staff.
India only has about 2,000 food safety officers -- compared with the 6,000 the FSSAI hopes to hire and train, according to its new chairman K. Chandramouli. Its budget for this fiscal year is just $8 million, though it hopes to quadruple that in 2012/13.
"Milk contamination is not a new thing. It's been happening for a very long period of time," the CSE's Misra said. "Why it's created a furore now is because it's (the survey) been done by a food regulatory body."
"The government has said that your milk is adulterated. Now it's set an official seal on all these things that we already knew," she said.

Moo! Now milk’s a woe

- Samples low on nutrition, but food controller denies chemical hazards

A.S.R.P. MUKESH

Jharkhand’s milky way to good health is in serious jeopardy. All the 13 dairy samples collected from Ranchi last month have tested low on nutrients, corroborating a report collated by a central agency that suggested large-scale adulteration of milk. Though the state food controller has ruled out hazardous chemical contaminants, the veracity of his statement will be determined when the detailed laboratory report comes out on Monday. Alarmed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s (FSSAI) findings, Jharkhand High Court had on January 12 initiated a public interest litigation and suo motu directed the state government to inform what steps it was taking to stop the malpractice. This spurred the health department to launch surprise raids in different parts of the state, beginning from Ranchi on January 13. The two-day raids in the capital alone led to the collection of 13 samples of various brands, including Sudha and Medha dairies run by the animal husbandry department. These were put to tests at the Mineral Area Development Authority’s (Mada) laboratory in Dhanbad and none of them proved to be 100 per cent pure. State food controller T.P. Burnwal confirmed that the tests for Ranchi were completed on Friday, but insisted that he was yet to get the detailed report and was tracking lab developments over phone. “All the samples have been found to be substandard. They are low on nutrition values, which means they don’t contain the desired amount of carbohydrates and proteins. The water-milk ratio too is beyond the permissible mark,” he said. Burnwal, however, stressed that the milk samples did not contain hazardous contaminants. “I should make it clear that substandard milk does not mean that it is always harmful to one’s health. That is a misconception. In other words, low on nutrients does not mean dangerous. It means the intake of that milk may not give you benefits as expected,” he added. The FSSAI had conducted a nationwide survey and collected 1,791 samples, of which 1,226 had tested positive for milk adulteration. The reports suggest that most Indians are consuming detergents and other contaminants through milk. The survey found that apart from Jharkhand, milk circulated in Bengal, Bihar and Odisha was also doctored. The first-of-its-kind snapshot survey had found that about 68.4 per cent of the samples carried detergents. Other contaminants were urea, starch, glucose and formalin. However, according to the state food controller, the FSSAI report on Jharkhand didn’t mention harmful chemicals such as detergents in milk. “The report we got from the central agency talked about adulteration but didn’t detail on what kind of contaminants. To our knowledge, the most common form of adulteration in Jharkhand is solid non-fat such as rice powder and flour. They are edible and not harmful to health. But they rob the nutritional value of milk,” he said. If Burnwal is to be believed, the tests at Mada didn’t mention any such solid non-fat and the most common adulteration seems to be water and skimmed milk powder. “When adulteration is in the form of water, one needs to find the source of water. We have to see whether the water was treated. Also, if a milkman washes his hands with detergent before adding water to the milk, there are chances of finding traces of detergent,” he said. But does that mean defaulters (almost all brands in state) won’t be taken to task? “No. As a first step, we will warn them and ask them to adopt corrective measures. For instance, selling skimmed milk isn’t illegal, but the packet should mention it is without cream so that people know what they are buying and do not feel cheated. Thereafter, we will begin a crackdown,” he said. Burnwal further said that random sampling might not reveal the exact causes of adulteration. “We need to conduct regular exercises, but manpower crunch is a hurdle.” So is the defunct state food and drug testing laboratory in Namkum. The health department had initiated the process of recruitment in last week of January to make the centre operational, but in vain. According to Burnwal, the initiative failed because of an age hitch. “The upper age limit for top officials is 65 years. Shortlisted candidates didn’t meet the criterion. So, we have to redo the process,” he added.

Unhygienic restaurants, bakery shops are around

Eat with caution…
Srinagar, Feb 11: Asserting that majority of restaurants and bakery shops in the City didn’t conform to food safety and standard rules as they prepare food under unhygienic conditions, authorities have issued notices to them to improve or face action.
Officials said that around 80 percent restaurants and bakery shops of the City prepare food in unhygienic conditions and majority of them are not aware about the requisite standards.
“During our recent inspection we found majority of the food and bakery units in city not following proper hygienic standards and the most strange thing was that they were not aware about the guidelines and rules,” said Public Analyst, Drugs and Food Control Organization, Hamidullah Dar.
The conditions of rooms in which food is prepared, utensils used, as also the condition of workers have been found sub-standardized in these units.
However, he said that strong note has been taken of the issue and strict guidelines have been issued to restaurants and bakery owners, and in case they fail to comply, strong action will be taken against them.
“It was not possible for them to improve within short period of time so we have given them two month’s time. After that strong action in the form of fine and punishment will follow against those who are found culpable,” said Dar.
He said that special team has been formed to conduct regular inspections and examination to keep these units under check.
He said that with the help of implementation of Food Safety Standards Act, 2006 which came into force in Jammu and Kashmir on August, 05, 2011, several rules and guidelines regarding food safety became clear and awareness of people increased to large extent.
“With the act not only restaurant and bakery owners but other food manufacturing units have also got clear guidelines,” Dar added. 
He said that under the Act, purchaser has also been empowered to have any article of food analyzed by food analyst on payment of small prescribed fee.
He urged the people to lodge complaints in his department if they found anything wrong anywhere.
However, the restaurants and bakery owners in the City refuted the claims of the Public Analyst, and maintained that they are conforming to the rules and regulations properly.
“We strictly follow the rules and have improved hygienic conditions,” claimed Himayun Jan, a local bakery owner. 

Be wary of packed milk in villages

BHOPAL: Go for packed milk in Madhya Pradesh cities, these appear safe, but there is a 48 per cent chance that the same would be adulterated if you buy it from the villages.
Packed milk sold in the cities has been found pure and free from adulteration, but its not so in rural areas in Madhya Pradesh, according to a Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) test report, a senior official disclosed.
"No packed milk sample taken from any of the state's cities by FSSAI was found adulterated, according to its last month report," State Food and Drugs Department Controller AK Rai confirmed to TOI on Friday. But contrary to the perception that food stuff and milk was more pure in rural areas, both packed and unpacked milk sold in the rural areas were found to be spiked with water and having less fat and solids.
Rai said FSSAI took 61 milk samples from MP, out of which 29 were found to be impure. This meant that 48 per cent was not pure, he added.
He however said MP did well in the milk samples tests conducted all over northern India. Not a single sample out of the 61 contained urea that was found in milk samples of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa and Bihar.
According to the FSSAI report, milk quality was best in the country in Goa and Pondicherry, following by Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka. "We are after Karnataka in the list, "he claimed.
He said all the 19 samples collected from Chhattisgarh, carved out of MP, failed in the test.

No safe limit for trans fats

India’s food regulator has been asked to pay a compensation of Rs 2,000 to a RTI for failing to admit that the country does not have safety standards for trans fats in ghee and edible oil.

Right To Information activist KS Swami wanted to know whether the National Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has prescribed any safe percentage of trans fats in ghee and edible oil.

Some western nations such as Denmark have prescribed 2% of trans fats in products as a safe limit. A study conducted by Centre for Science and Environment had showed that most of trusted edible oil brands contain unhealthy levels of trans fat and it is 12 times higher than which is permissible in Netherlands in Vanaspati ghee.

Swami filed an RTI application in July 2011 asking the authority whether they have instructed the manufacturers of ghee and edible oils to exhibit the safe percentage of trans fats on the packets along with its actual percentage. 

Instead of giving a direct reply to the questions, the authority provided a few paras of its labeling regulation which said to claim that a product was trans fats fee may be used only if it was less than 0.2 gram per serving of food.

Unhappy with the reply, Swami filed an appeal with CIC which found the authority deliberately avoiding admission of no safety standard for trans fats. “If the authority has taken no steps about specifying the safe level of trans fats percentages in ghee and edible oils they should at least admit this,” Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi said in his order.

Noting that harassment of a common man was “socially abhorring” and “legally impermissible”, Gandhi said awarding a compensation (of Rs 2,000) to an individual satisfies him personally and helps in improving work culture.

The CIC has also issued a notice to authority’s public information officer of imposing penalty blaming him for not furnishing complete information.

CIC rap for Govt over trans-fat in food items

The Chief Information Commissioner has  criticised Union Health Ministry for its ambivalent approach on the issue of declaration of trans-fat content in edible items sold in the market.
RTI applicant KK Swami, who had sought information whether anything concrete had been done by the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India on the trans-fat content isuue, was told by the Ministry that it had made it a requirement to declare the content on September 19, 2008.

“However, this letter (from the Ministry) acknowledges that since industry made various representations apprehending commercial implications in terms of their sale of products a corrigendum was issued on Feb 27, 2009 modifying this,” Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi pointed out in his order. When the matter came before the CIC.

He also noted that Prevention of Food Adulteration Department had informed the applicant Swami, in December 2009, that the safe limit specified for trans-fat in food products shall be clarified from Government of India and efforts are being made to get the food laboratory of this department accredited from NABL to have all these testing facilities in near future.

After another year, the Ministry informed him the process of framing regulation by Food Authority of India is on. With no clear reply from the Health Ministry, Swami reached the transparency panel.

Directing the Ministry to give a clear response on the subject before March 15, Gandhi said, “The appellant has been unnecessarily harassed in pursuing this matter. If there is complete neglect of care for citizens health this should at least come out when a citizen uses Right to Information”. The consumption of trans-fat which are commonly found in the edible oils and ghee are known for increasing the risk of coronary heart disease by raising levels of bad LDL cholesterol and lowering levels of ‘good’ HDL cholesterol.

Food authority backtracks

Says milk adulterated but not unsafe for consumption

Photo: Sayantoni PalchoudhuriSix states and a union territory feed their people milk that does not meet the standards set by India’s food regulatory body at all. Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Daman & Diu are the “100 per cent non-conforming” states. In Delhi, 70 per cent of the samples failed the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) test. Yet, the authority claims there is no danger in drinking the milk.
On January 2, FSSAI uploaded on its website the summary report of a snap-shot survey it had conducted across the country. Results of the National Survey on Milk Adulteration, 2011, were startling, leaving the food authority facing a volley of angry questions from all quarters.
Backtracking on its claims, the food authority clarified in a press release on January 12: “Non-conforming to standards does not mean the milk is unsafe for consumption.”
“Most milk samples did not adhere to the fat and the solid-not-fat (SNF) percentages laid down in the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. They are sub-standard, but not necessarily unsafe,” it added.
What’s in your milk?
Of the 1,791 samples tested, 70 per cent were adulterated and did not meet the standards the Act sets. Nearly 14 per cent contained detergent, 548 had skimmed milk powder and 477 had glucose. Maximum adulteration—nearly 46 per cent—was because of SNF. Solids like vitamins, minerals and proteins are classified as SNF. Higher the SNF content better is the quality of milk, and therefore the cost. Traders add urea and carbohydrates like starch, potato powder, wheat flour, blotting paper, sugar and glucose which increase the lactometer reading.

Home checks How to test adulteration in milk For Neutraliser In 5 ml of milk add 5 ml of alcohol followed by about five drops of rosalic acid. If the colour changes to pinkish red, the milk is adulterated with sodium carbonate or sodium bicarbonate and is unfit for human consumptionFor Urea Mix 5 ml of milk with 5 ml of paradimethyl amino benzaldehyde. If the solution turns yellow, the milk is adulterated with urea For Hydrogen Peroxide Add five drops of paraphenylene diamine to 5 ml milk and shake it well. Adulterated milk will turn blue For Formalin In a test tube containing 10 ml of milk add 5 ml of concentrated sulphuric acid from the sides without disturbing it. A violet or blue ring will appear at the intersection of the two layers indicating presence of formalin For Sugar To 10 ml of milk add 5 ml of hydrochloric acid and 0.1 g of resorcinol in a test tube. Shake it well and place the test tube in boiling water for five minutes. Adulterated milk will turn red For Starch Boil 3 ml of milk and then cool to room temperature. Add two to three drops of 1 per cent iodine solution. It will turn blue. For Glucose Dip a diacetic strip in milk for about one minute. If the strip changes colour, the milk contains glucose

Packaged milk performed better than milk sold loose. With only 30 per cent non-compliance, samples collected from rural areas also fared better than urban centres.
A trader, who claims to have stopped adulterating milk, says salt, detergents and glucose increase milk’s thickness and viscosity, and starch prevents it from curdling. Neutralisers like sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, ammonia, carbon trioxide (carbonate) and other alkalis are used to increase the pH value of badly preserved milk.
The immediate effect of drinking adulterated milk with urea and detergent is gastroenteritis. But long-term effects are far more serious. The adulterants irreversibly damage organs. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, some of the adulterants can cause fatal diseases like cancer and heart ailments.
Taking suo moto cognisance of FSSAI’s report, the Delhi High Court has asked the Centre and the Delhi government to explain why 70 per cent of the milk samples lifted from the capital were adulterated. They have been asked to submit their report by January 25.
Cornered FSSAI saves face
The food authority has now instructed big dairy houses to brand their milk correctly. When added with skimmed milk powder or glucose, the milk should be labelled “reconstituted”. But skimmed milk powder has been added to milk for long to reduce its fat content, says N R Bhasin, president of Indian Dairy Association, which comprises milk manufacturers in the organised sector. “Called toned milk, it is not low in nutrition. Only its fat content is reduced by 1.5-2 per cent. It is not hazardous to health,” he adds.
Adulteration can be hazardous only when milk is diluted with water contaminated by pesticides or heavy metals, says Asim Choudhary, director of FSSAI.
The summary report states one of the aims of the survey was to identify common adulterants in milk—fat, vegetable fat, SNF, neutraliser, acidity, hydrogen peroxide, sugar, starch, glucose, urea, salt, detergent and skimmed milk powder. But it later claimed that it was not the commonly occurring contaminants they were targetting, but were reporting only “deviation from standard”. The deviation was found the highest—46.8 per cent—in fat and SNF content.
Keeping the full report under wraps, the food authority has not yet disclosed the quantity of each adulterant found. FSSAI also stated that formalin, or formaldehyde, was found in some samples, but argued that “it is allowed for preservation”.
Bhasin refutes the claim. Adding formalin to milk is against the law, he says. Known to be a carcinogen, the chemical is used for preservation and as a disinfectant. It is illegally used by adulterants to increase milk’s shelf life.
FSSAI made one more change in its claim. The summary report stated that eight per cent of the samples contained detergent. It attributed presence of detergent to lack of hygiene and sanitation in milk handling and packaging. Within 10 days, the food authority increased the figure to 14 per cent. However, it did not explain the change.
Blame game begins
The FSSAI has passed the buck to the states. But the states blame the food authority for a half-baked report.
FSSAI is responsibile for keeping a check on milk’s purity. It is, therefore, preparing an advisory for states to crack down on violators. But the states have no idea who the violators are. “They have not shared the report with us. We have no idea where they collected the samples from. The survey should have been sent to the states first,” says Ashish Kumar, designated officer, Food Safety Authority in Bihar.
Slamming FSSAI’s claims, Kumar says they conduct regular checks but have never found detergent or urea. “Moreover, synthetic milk is found in Meerut and Ghaziabad, not in Bihar,” he adds. FSSAI is aware of it, yet did not collect samples from Meerut or Ghaziabad.
Delhi, too, is disappointed with the report. “None of our samples had problems with either fat or SNF content,” says S K Saxena, Food Safety Commissioner in Delhi. “Nor was detergent or urea found in our milk. The samples had skimmed milk powder. This is added during summers when supply falls. The samples were collected in April and May. Skimmed milk powder is not hazardous to health,” he adds.
About 90 per cent of Delhi’s requirement of 70 million litre milk is met by brands like DMS, Mother Dairy, Parag, Saras and Gopaljee. Yet, only five samples of the 50 collected were packaged milk, says Saxena.
“The authority has created panic,” says Bhasin. The problem is with the unorganised sector, but that is not how it has been reported, he adds. “If clarifications are not issued soon, it will be a huge setback for the good milk production this year owing to good monsoon and winter,” he adds.

FOOD AUTHORITY CRACKDOWN: PROVE ADVERTISING CLAIMS

MULTIGRAIN noodles that claim to be healthier than the regular variety, digestive biscuits that help weight loss and drinks that make champions out of little children -- cracking down on such advertisements, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has sent notices to the manufacturers asking them to justify the claims with appropriate evidence of face action for violating the advertising code for food items and supplements.
Among those who have been issued notices are: Maggi multigrain noodles, Top Ramen (which has brought out an oats version), Nutrichoice biscuits, Horlicks, Complan, Heartcare biscuits, Bournvita Lil Champs and Pediasure food supplement. The products were identified after months of monitoring the advertisements. The companies have been told to respond within a fortnight.
“The issue is not of misleading, but there are issues of governance involved. The Ministry of Company Affairs must also seek compliance from such large MNCs on giving declarations in their annual reports that they have not issued any misleading advertisements or have not
been served with any notice from the food regulator about misbranding/ misleading advertisements,” said FSSAI director (administration) Asim Choudhary in an e-mail to The Indian Express.
“Similarly these companies must not not be allowed to telecast such advertisements by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and there should also be a ban on their advertising on social networking sites so that in course of time these misleading advertisements will be monitored at more than one level,” said Choudhary, adding that the notices were sent about “a week-10 days ago”.
Some of the questions that the FSSAI has raised are: what are the sugar and other components used in Nutrichoice by Britannia that make the biscuits healthy; what is the basis of the multigrain claim of Maggi (Nestle product) and oats claim of Top Ramen (Nissin); how Complan (Heinz) makes children grow taller faster; how Bournvita Lil Champs (Cadburys) triggers better brain development.
Nestle spokesperson Himanshu Manglik said the company was yet to receive any notice. But a spokesperson of Cadburys said: “We had received a request for information from the FSSAI on the ingredients of Bournvita Lil Champs. We have provided all relevant scientific facts and data on the composition of our product.”
According to the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006, “any person who publishes or is party to the publication of an advertisement, which (i) falsely describes any food or (ii) is likely to mislead as to the nature or substance or quality of any food or gives false guarantee, shall be liable to a penalty which may extend to Rs 10 lakh.”