Jun 16, 2012

Personnel Hygiene Monitoring / Swab Testing

http://www.equinoxlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Hand-Hygiene-Swab.jpg 
Researches in the domain of Food Contamination show that over 80% of the contamination of regular daily food is attributed to the poor Personal Hygiene levels of the Kitchen Staff and the Food handlers. In such a scenario, majority of the microbial contaminants enter the Food Chain through the Food Handling Staff.



Prime reasons behind such problems are as follows:
1)      Lack of knowledge of Importance of Personal Hygiene in Food Safety.
2)      Ignorance and Negligence of the Food Manufacturers and their staff.
3)      Improper and Irregular Hand Washing and Hand Sanitization Practices.
4)      Lack of knowledge of the appropriate procedures of Hand Washing and Hand Sanitization.
5)      Improper kitchen layout, leading to touching unhygienic parts of the kitchen during Food Processing.
6)      Low levels of Personal Hygiene Monitoring, Certification and Documentation.
7)      Contamination through Food Handlers who are carrying diseases and micro organisms.

Regular monitoring of Personal Hygiene of the Food Handlers with Hand Hygiene Swabs is required to verify effective hand washing techniques and thus reduce the risk of cross contamination in the kitchen.
As a general measure of containing Cross Contamination of Food by the hands of the Food Handlers, in many Food Manufacturing Units the Food Handlers are made to wear gloves. Gloves spread the contamination the same way the hands do. In this case, it is important to take swabs from the gloves to verify that the staff are not working with contaminated gloves and are changing frequently or whenever contaminated.

Food safety mess

Adjudicating Officer Udh imposes fine of Rs.10,000

UDHAMPUR, June 15: To keep a strict vigil on the quality of eatables, a team of Food Safety Officers under the personal supervision of Designated Officer of Food Safety Act of district Udhampur conducted surprise check of different establishments dealing with food articles and destroyed adulterated milk at different locations enroute Tikri to Udhampur here on Thursday.

Designated Officer, Kavinder Choudhary accompanied by Food safety officers Bharat Bushan and ZulfiKar Ali Malik conducted surprise checks at different milk vending points like Garhi, Rahmbal and Chopra Shop of the district and checked the quality of milk, samples of food items were also lifted from different shops and were dispatched to the concerned quarters for testing purpose.

During their visit, the officers also educated the people about the Food Safety and Standard Act and asked them to cooperate with the department by providing necessary information about the violators so that defaulters can be dealt under the provision Act.

Earlier, Adjudicating Officer, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Udhampur, Rajinder Singh has imposed a fine to the tune of Rs.10,000 on a supplier namely Kulbushan Gupta for supplying substandard biscuits to the ICDS Centers of Udhampur under the Act.

Maharashtra to ban gutka, paan masala soon

A week after senior NCP leader and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said so, the state government is all set to ban gutka and paan masala across Maharashtra. It has been observed that consumption of such tobacco products is the main cause of oral cancer.

According to a senior public health bureaucrat, the government will invoke the provisions of the landmark Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, to ban the products. "Under the act, the food safety commissioner has all powers to ban gutka and paan masala. But since this will be a major policy decision, it will be brought to the notice of chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and also Pawar. We are sure we will be able to enforce the ban as early as possible," he said.

Elaborating on the provisions of the act, the bureaucrat said that under section 30, the food safety commissioner has the powers to prohibit--in the interest of public health--the manufacture, storage, distribution and sale of any article of food either in the whole of the state or a part for a period not exceeding one year. But the act has a provision, called rule 2.3.4, according to which tobacco and nicotine should not be used as ingredients in any food products. This essentially means that tobacco products can be banned.

The bureaucrat said that in the wake of a protest lodged by anti-tobacco activists and also Ajit Pawar's commitment, a comprehensive proposal to ban gutka and pan masala had been submitted to the government. "It is the responsibility of the food safety commissioner to enforce the ban in letter and spirit. Once the proposal is approved, all measures will be taken to prevent the sale of gutka and pan masala across the state."

On the financial implications of the decision, the bureaucrat said that the state garnered well over Rs 100 crore by way of sales tax on gutka and pan masala.

A decade ago, the government had invoked provisions of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954, to ban the two products on similar grounds. Subsequently, more than a dozen manufacturers of the products had shifted their units to neighbouring states. A section of manufacturers had even challenged the ban in the Bombay high court and the Supreme Court.

Now that this act has been repealed, and a new law has come into force (on August 5, 2011) it has been proposed to invoke it to ban gutka. "We have carefully studied the ban order promulgated by Madhya Pradesh and Kerala. We will ensure that there are no loopholes in our proposal," the bureaucrat said. "Simultaneously, we will study the observation of the apex court, which has made it clear that tobacco and nicotine shall not be used as ingredients in any food products. Our information is that the court has stated that gukta and pan masala are food products."

Unpotable water at govt-run institutions

GUWAHATI, June 15 – A research conducted by voluntary association Jeevan Initiative has found that drinking water supplied in various government-run institutions in Guwahati are not at all safe for consumption. Of the 10 water samples collected from vital institutions, including two hospitals and three educational institutions, all the samples were found far below the prescribed standards.
The samples collected from Guwahati Railway Station, Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC) canteen at Paltan Bazar, Inter-state Bus Terminus (ISBT) canteen, Gauhati Medical College Hospital, Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital, Srimanta Sankardeva Kalakshetra, Latasil Primary School, Guwahati Blind High School, Gauhati University Arts canteen and the court premises of District and Session Judge, Kamrup failed the bacteriological tests conducted by State Public Health Laboratory, Guwahati.
Addressing media persons here, Suresh Ranjan Goduka, editor of the Jeevan magazine said that the water sample tests clearly point out that the provisions of Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 are not being followed in the State. “It is more disturbing that even the patients and students, including the visually challenged students, are being served polluted water,” he added.
In all the water samples tested, high presence of E Coli and Coliform bacteria have been detected which in enough to declare the water unfit for consumption. According to World Health Organization both the bacteria should be totally absent in drinking water.
In drinking water samples collected from ASTC, presence of E Coli was 2,400 MPN/100 ml, which was 1,100 in Railway Station and Blind High School, 240 in University, 150 in ISBT, 44 in District and Sessions Court premises, 43 in GMC Hospital, 21 in Latasil Primary School, 17 in MMCH and 4 in Kalakshetra. The presence of Coliform was very high in the water samples.
Asking the authorities to take the responsibility of serving non-polluted water to the people, the organization members said that a copy of the lab reports would be soon submitted to the State government.
The video footage of the sources from where the water samples were collected were also shown in the press conference.
Samples collected from drinking water facilities of ASTC canteen, Railway Station, MMCH, and court premises were found to be chemically unsatisfactory. The turbidity in water level was also very high.
“The people have already lost faith on the drinking water supplied by the government. Even in the government meetings and functions, packaged drinking water is served to the guests, which indicates that even the government representatives do not trust their drinking water facility. But, it is an injustice to those who cannot afford packaged drinking water,” he added.
Educationist Dr Anil Kr Goswami released the 19-page report prepared by the organization on the lab tests of water samples.

Chinese dairy maker Yili recalls baby formula tainted with mercury

BEIJING: Chinese dairy maker Yili said it had started recalling batches of baby formula after authorities found they contained high levels of mercury, in the latest food safety scare to hit the country.

The company began the recall on Wednesday after a national food safety monitoring system detected "abnormal" levels of mercury in the products, state-owned Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group said in a statement.

The recall covers baby formula produced from November 2011 to May 2012, according to the statement posted Thursday.

The firm did not state how much baby formula was affected or how mercury - which is extremely toxic and can harm the brain, heart, kidneys, lungs, and immune system at high exposure - made its way into the products.

China's quality watchdog said Thursday it had carried out an "urgent monitoring" of 715 samples of baby formula by various producers following the Yili case, but so far no other products were found to be unsafe.

However, authorities were unable to collect samples from 20 firms because they had suspended production of baby formula, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) said in a statement.

It was unclear when they stopped production and whether this was linked to the mercury scare.

Currently, 119 companies in China manufacture baby formula, state media cited Ma Chunliang, an official with AQSIQ, as saying last month.

China's dairy industry is prone to safety scares.

In 2008, milk was at the centre of one of China's biggest food safety scandals when the industrial chemical melamine was found to have been illegally added to dairy products to give the appearance of higher protein content.

Since then, many Chinese people remain suspicious of domestically produced milk after six children died and 300,000 others fell ill in the scandal, which also involved Yili products.

Critics say the hygiene standards that China's dairy farms must adhere to are among the world's lowest, with the levels of bacteria permissible in milk four times as high as in most Western countries.

There have been accusations that the government, keen to ensure China's growing demand for milk is catered to, is giving in to an increasingly powerful dairy industry dominated by Yili and another dairy giant Mengniu.

Yili shares were down by the maximum 10 per cent daily limit at 21.85 yuan ($3.4) in Shanghai on midday Thursday, bucking the rising trend in the broader market.