Sep 9, 2013

DINAMALAR NEWS


JMC not monitoring health of eatery workers

Jammu, September 8
While a campaign has been initiated by the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) against adulteration and serving of unhygienic food to the consumers for the last three months, no steps have been taken to conduct necessary health checks on persons preparing and serving food to the consumers.
Under the Food Safety Act-2006, health check-up is mandatory to ensure that the staff working at the eating points don’t suffer from any infectious or skin disease.
The Municipal Corporation is organising awareness camps at different markets to inculcate in people associated with the food business the need to maintain cleanliness, but no strict action is taken against the violators.
Most of the people working in the eateries and eating points on roads belong to areas outside the state or rural areas and no steps are being taken to keep record of their medical health nor is any record of the traders engaged being submitted to the officials.
“There are thousands of persons working in hotels, restaurants, dhabas and other eateries who come into direct contact with the foodstuffs, but there is no way to detect whether they suffer from any disease. It is the civic body's duty”, said Sukesh Sharma, a Marketing Executive.
About a year back, the Municipal Corporation asked eateries to submit “fitness for work” certificate following concern being expressed by various NGOs and government agencies that people were getting low quality and unhygienic food in the city.
Municipal Health Officer Dr Vinod Sharma said they are creating awareness among the owners of food joints. "We are inspecting hygienic condition of the premises but educating the food operators regarding food safety act. Whenever we have pointed out the problems, owners of eateries have assured us they will take appropriate steps,” said Dr Sharma.
The health officer said it had already been decided to put a ban on issuance or renewal of the licence without production of the fitness certificate to ensure that the these food-sellers, regardless of the safety precautions they take at work, undergo a mandatory medical examination for ratifying their physical fitness in order to pursue their trade.
Meanwhile, a third awareness camp was organised at the JMC which was attended by manufacturing units (owner of flour mills, rice mills and spices grinders etc). The attendees were directed to maintain proper hygienic conditions in their manufacturing as well as storage units.

Authorities to continue drive against meat shops

KOCHI: After health officials of the Kochi corporation carried out a raid and seized 1,000kg of rotten beef from a meat dealer in Mattancherry on Saturday, the food safety department has decided to strictly monitor meat shops in the city.
As per the plan, the food safety department is planning to inspect meat shops in the coming days. The inspections will be conducted by special squads formed for the festive season.
The food safety officials will also seek police assistance to find out the source of meat supply and plans to initiate strict action against shops supplying rotten meat.
Though most of the meat shops and slaughter houses in the city are operating without valid registration or licences, food safety officials said that it was not possible to close them down as it could result in shortage of supply.
According to the department, the corporation should take necessary steps to set up more slaughter houses to ensure quality.
A food safety official said that state food safety commissioner Biju Prabhakar has given direction to check vehicles, which transport frozen meat. "As per the commissioner's direction, vehicles transporting meat will be checked in the coming days," he said.
Meanwhile, the members of the Kerala Hotel and Restaurants Association (KHRA) said that it would soon issue circulars to members asking them to be careful while buying meat from shops that supply them cheaply.

FDA probes arsenic presence in rice from India

The US health watchdog FDA is conducting a detailed inspection of the arsenic level in rice being sold in the American market, including those of basmati variety imported from India.
While an analytical study of more than 1,300 samples of rice and rice products, including basmati from India, did not show any alarming levels of arsenic presence, the FDA will now conduct a "comprehensive risk assessment" study to determine the long-term impact of the arsenic found in rice.
Arsenic is a chemical element present in the environment from both natural and human sources and its inorganic forms have been closely associated with long-term health effects such as higher rates of skin, bladder and lung cancers.
While most crops don't readily take up much arsenic from the ground, rice is different because it takes up arsenic from soil and water more readily than other grains.
In a latest consumer update, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) said it has "increased its testing of rice and rice products" to determine the level and types of arsenic found in these products, usually a life-long dietary staple.
The regulator said its next step will be "to conduct a risk assessment", wherein it would analyse the health risk associated with eating rice and rice products to determine the steps required to minimise the risks for consumers, including vulnerable groups like children and pregnant women.
The draft risk assessment will be made available for public comment following peer review, it said.
Agency scientists have so far determined that amount of detectable arsenic is too low in rice and rice product samples to cause any "immediate or short-term" adverse effects.
US rice imports have been increasing in the last 25 years. Most US rice imports are aromatic varieties from Asia--jasmine from Thailand and basmati from India, the world's largest producer of the aromatic grain.
Total US rice imports for 2012/13 was projected at 19.5 million cwt (centum weight). Indian basmati is one of the most expensive rice in the US as it commands 2-3 times higher price than American domestic long-grain rice.
The results of the analytical study of about 1,100 samples of rice and rice products were released last week, while a preliminary set of results for nearly 200 samples were released in September 2012.
The study of more than 1,300 samples of rice and rice products, which included more than 30 from India, found 0.1-7.2 micrograms of inorganic arsenic per serving in them.
The study of samples from India showed that fully cooked basmati contained up to 0.9 units of inorganic arsenic per serving, boil-in-bag variety had 2.3 units, aged variety had up to 3.9 units, white variety had up to 3.9 units and the brown variety had up to 6 units of arsenic presence.
FDA has cautioned against making any state-to-state or country-to-country comparisons with these results as the number of samples are "too few" to support such an exercise.
While observing that the arsenic presence has been found to be too low so far to have any adverse health impact for short-to-medium term, FDA said that a further study is required to determine the long-term impact as rice and rice products are consumed for a long period of time.
"... what about the long-term impact? After all, rice is a food that people eat over the course of a lifetime," it said.
"The approximately 1,300 analytical results do not tell us what long-term health effect, if any, these levels may have, nor do they tell us what can be done to reduce these levels. The data collection and analysis is the first step in a major effort to understand the overall safety of consumption of rice and rice products in the United States," FDA said.
The FDA has been monitoring arsenic levels in rice for more than 20 years and has seen no evidence of change in levels of total arsenic in rice, it added.