BIS working on standards for edible oil, soon to be ISI-marked product

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is currently working on a set of standards for edible oil, which, as stated by Sunil Soni, its director general, are ready. As soon as the final draft of the standards for the same is released, the certification of the product would begin. “Edible oil would shortly be an ISI-marked product,” he informed.
Soni added, “A meeting with the stakeholders on the transition methods is slated to be held next month. Not only would the regulations and implementation time frame for the same be discussed, but a roadmap (which would be decided by the transition methods) would also be drawn up for the implementation of the edible oil standards.”
At the meeting, the stakeholders would put forth their concerns, because the director general said that BIS wanted a smooth transition. The standards would be applicable to the entire range of packaged edible oil sold at retail outlets across the India.
They would be accepted by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), which is working on them with BIS. The former would use the standards to ensure food safety.
Soni informed that BIS was in continuous in talks with the country’s apex food regulator, adding that in addition to high-level coordination meetings, they were a part of a working group for oil standards.
It has been done to avoid overlapping and copying of standards by the various agencies working to ensure food safety. In the past, edible oil standards were a part of the AGMARK portfolio. But AGMARK has withdrawn itself from framing standards for manufactured agri products to focus solely on raw products.
BIS has standards ready for street foods and tap water as well. It would write to the Urban Development Department to ask local bodies to ensure the implementation of the standards for the latter. As for the former, each state’s food safety department would be the implementing authority.
However, it has been proposed that the standards, which are fairly high, would be implemented in phases, with levels one, two and so on.

Campaign stresses iodisation of salt

Food Safety Department officials have embarked on a campaign stressing the need for iodisation in salt. The programme is aimed at creating awareness of the need to prevent iodine deficiency.
To iodise salt, potassium iodate should be added to salt after it was refined and dried before packing, reliable sources from the Department told The Hindu here on Monday.
With the Global Iodine Deficiency Disorders Prevention Day being observed on October 21, the Food Safety Department has come out with a strong message to ensure iodisation in salt.
The iodised salt should have 99 per cent of potassium iodate to ensure safe and healthy consumption. As per Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), iodisation of salt is mandatory for both producers and consumers.
It was necessary that 30 parts per million (ppm) of iodine should be maintained at production level and 15 ppm at consumption level.
To check sale of substandard and mis-branded product, the officials stepped up vigil. Four cases of sale of substandard quality of salt were detected since August this year. It was mandatory that packed salt must have full address of manufacturer and marketer of the brand. In violation of the FSSA norms, many often this packed commodity carried doctor’s advice –‘Best for Health’ and even World Health Organization’s advice citing the brand name, sources pointed out.
Iodine Deficiency Disorders Prevention Day is observed on October 21

DINAMALAR NEWS

தீபாவளி விற்பனைக்காக செய்த தரமற்ற இனிப்பு, பலகாரங்கள் பறிமுதல்

கடலூர், அக். 21:
கடலூர் மாவட்டத்தில், சுகாதாரமற்ற முறையில் தயார் செய்யப்பட்ட இனிப்பு பலாகாரங்களை உணவு பாதுகாப்பு துறையினர் பறிமுதல் செய்தனர்.
தீபாவளி பண்டிகை முன்னிட்டு முக்கிய அம்சமாக அமைந்துள்ள இனிப்பு மற்றும் பிற பலகார வகைகள் தயாரிப்பு பணிகள் தீவிரமாக நடைபெற்று வருகிறது. விற்பனை செய்யப்படும் பலகாரங்கள், இனிப்பு வகைகள் தரமானதாக இல்லையென தொடர் புகார் வந்தது. அதன்பேரில் மாவட்ட உணவு பாதுகாப்பு அதிகாரி ராஜா தலைமையில் மாவட்டம் முழுவதும் சோதனை மேற்கொள்ளப்பட்டு வருகிறது. இதில் இனிப்பு வகைகள் தயாரிப்புகளில் பயன்படுத்தப்படும் எண்ணெய் மற்றும் பொருட்கள் பயன்பாடு, தடை செய்யப்பட்ட பொருட்கள் பயன்படுத்தப்படுகிறதா என்பது குறித்து ஆய்வு செய்யப்பட்டு வருகிறது. சுகாதாரமற்ற முறையில் தயார் செய்யப்படுவது கண்டுபிடிக்கப்பட்டு 125 கிலோ இனிப்பு மற்றும் பலகார வகைகள் பறிமுதல் செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளது. கடலூர் பகுதியில் திருமண மண்டபங்கள் உள்ளிட்ட இடங்களில் சோதனை மேற்கொள்ளப்பட்டது. இதில் சொரக்கல்பட்டு சாலையில் உள்ள தனியார் மண்டபத்தில் தயாரிக்கப்பட்ட இனிப்புகள் ஆய்வகத்தில் சோதனை செய்ய எடுத்து செல்லப்பட்டது.

தீபாவளி பலகாரங்களின் தரத்தை உணவு பாதுகாப்பு துறையினர் ஆய்வு

நாமக்கல், அக்.21:
நாமக்கல் மாவட்டம் ராசிபுரம், திருச்செங்கோடு மற்றும் குமாரபாளையம் பகுதியில் தீபாவளி பண்டிகையையொட்டி தயாரிக்கப்படும் இனிப்பு மற்றும் காரவகைகள் தரமான முறையில் தயாரிக்கப்படுகிறதா என நாமக்கல் மாவட்ட உணவு பாதுகாப்பு துறை நியமனஅலுவலர் தமிழ்ச்செல்வன் தலைமையிலான அலுவலர்கள் ஆய்வு செய்தனர்.
திருமண மண்டபங்கள், பேக்கரிகளில் தயாரிக்கப்படும் இனிப்பு, காரவகைகள் ஆய்வு மேற்கொள்ளப்பட்டது. தரமான எண்ணெய், வனஸ்பதி மற்றும் நெய் வகைகளை கொண்டு தயாரிக்கப்படுகிறதா என ஆய்வு செய்யப்பட்டது. தயாரிக்கப்பட்ட இனிப்பு, கார வகைகளை பாக்கெட் மற்றும் டின்களில் லேபிள் மற்றும் மூடி கொண்டு உபயோகப்படுத்துகிறார்களா என அதிகாரிகள் சோதனை செய்தனர்.
அப்போது, தயாரிக்கப்பட்ட இனிப்பு, காரங்கள் சுகாதாரமான முறையில் மூடிவைத்து, சேமித்து விற்பனை செய்யப்படவேண்டும் என அறிவுறுத்தினர். தீபாவளி பண்டிகைக்காக இனிப்பு மற்றும் காரவகைகள் தயாரிக்கும் பணிகளில் ஈடுபடும் அனைவருக்கும் உரிமம் வழங்கப்பட்டுள்ளதாக உணவு பாதுகாப்பு அலு வலர் தமிழ்செல்வன் தெரிவித்தார். இந்த ஆய்வில் உணவு பாதுகாப்பு அலுவலர்கள் சதீஸ்குமார், செந்தில், ராஜா ஆகியோர் அடங்கிய குழுவினர் பங்கேற்றனர்.
நாமக்கல் மாவட்ட உணவு பாதுகாப்பு துறை நியமன அலுவலர் தமிழ்ச்செல்வன் திருமண மண்டபங்களில் தயாரிக்கப்படும் இனிப்பு வகைகளை ஆய்வு செய்தார்.

DINAMALAR NEWS

Surprise checks held at sweet shops

TRICHY: Officials from the Food Safety Wing on Monday conducted surprise checks at sweet shops and outlets where homemade foods were sold in city, town panchayats and some rural parts of the district.
Sweets and savouries remain an integral part of Diwali festival. With just a day to go for the festival, the sales of sweets and savouries in the district have gained momentum. Some shops try to sell old and expired stock to unsuspecting customers. Officials have advised people to be careful while buying sweets for the festival.
An official from the Food Safety Wing said, "When it comes to quality, people have to be more cautious in picking the best quality of sweets and savouries, keeping in mind about their health." During the inspection, officials found some shops in the rural parts of the district using colouring agents beyond the prescribed limit.
Sweets, savouries and food items of inferior quality were also found in shops in Lalgudi and Thuraiyur areas.
Officials also seized cool drinks of major companies being sold beyond the expiry date at various shops and destroyed them.
"The excessive colouring agent in sweets was found in some of the shops on the outskirts of the city. Likewise, the expired food items in shops were seized and destroyed. The food safety officers are still engaged in quality check in all the shops across the district," said Dr A Ramakrishnan, designated officer, Food Safety Wing, Trichy.
Officials also took four samples of sweets like jilebi and mysorepa from shops in the city and had sent them to laboratory for quality check. Action will be taken based on the outcome of the lab test.
The labelling on food packets were found missing in some shops. Hence, the chances are high for the sellers to push the old sweets to the customers which could lead to health problems during the festival time.
Officials advise the people to be particular about the quality and the date of manufacture while purchasing food items.
"People should not buy products sold without labels. If they find any shops selling food items and sweets without labels, they should inform food safety officials," said Dr Ramakrishnan.

ADULTERATED SWEETS: 40 UNITS SERVED NOTICE

To check supply of adulterated sweets and milk items during the festive season, the six teams from the Department of Food Safety keep conducting special checking drives for the past many days. Around 40 manufacturing units have been served notices by the teams in Dehradun district. Six teams have been deployed in the district to inspect manufacturing units of sweets and shops to check the purity of the items prepared by them, said Dehradun Food Safety officer Anoj Kumar Thapliyal said on Monday.
Thapliyal said he had chalked out a plan for festive season and department officials kept conducting drive from October 13 in various manufacturing units of sweets and shops.
The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 is enforced on all the food business undertakings- profit, non-profit, public and private- carrying out any of the activities related to any stage of manufacture, processing, packaging, storage, import, sale, transportation and distribution of food. The officials are monitoring preparation techniques and also keeping a close watch over hygiene and precautions maintained by the manufacturers. The officials have been directed to take samples of milk and the by- products which are usually in great demand during the festive season.
During the festive season, the officers are deployed at different places like Vikasnagar Sahaspur, Chakrata, Doiwala, Dehradun city and Rishikesh. Around 40 manufacturing units have been served notices by the teams in Dehradun district.
After collecting sampling, food items will be sent to Food and Drug Testing Laboratory (FDTL), Rudrapur.
Thapliyal further said that last year, the department had collected 70 samples of food items from the restaurants, dairies, shops and other manufacturing units in the district, out of which around 30 samples were found unsafe or sub-standard or misbranded or containing extraneous matter. The cases are now pending before the court. The penalty is being imposed on the food business operators who manufacture articles of food, defying the rules that are in force.
Meanwhile, Dehradun food safety officials seized around 2.5 Quintal Mawa from a car coming from Muzzafarnagar to Dehradun on Monday. Ramkumar, the owner of the car, is being questioned. Sample has been collected for further probe, said the officials.

OPEN HOUSE RESPONSE Spurious sweets: Go for zero-tolerance policy

The UT Health Department has been seizing adulterated sweets and other food items after the onset of the festival season. It is done every year, but violators go scot-free. Chandigarh Tribune asked its readers what needs to be done to ensure quality of sweets and food products

Harsher punishment for violators needed

Adulteration of material is result of difference between demand and supply, and quantum of profit margin. The legislators and Parliamentarians need to enact laws for harsher punishments to those indulging in adulteration and playing with people’s lives. News about sweets shop being raided and samples being taken are common during festive season. However, one seldom comes to know about the conviction or punishments awarded in such cases.Sardul Singh Abrawan, Chandigarh

Laws no deterrent in absence of conviction

The major reason for supply of adulterated sweets on festive occasions is lack of conviction even after getting caught red-handed. The quantum of milk product available in the market being much more than milk production in India is a clear indicator of adulteration.Wg Cdr Jasbir Singh Minhas (retd), Mohali

Conduct checks throughout the year

The authorities concerned should conduct checks to contain the malpractice throughout the year and not only during festive season. The shopkeepers want to make quick money ignoring the health risk they put their customers to.IPS Anand, Mani Majra

Hygiene is compromised all year long

It is not that sweats or food is prepared in unhygienic conditions during festival season only. The practice is followed across the year. Sadly, neither the UT Health Department nor the MC authorities find it worthwhile to check food/sweats being cooked and sold in the open in unhygienic conditions.KC Rana, Chandigarh

Food inspectors to blame

Over the years, adulteration in sweets, particularly those made of milk, during the festive season has grown manifold. More than the violators of the food safety laws, food inspectors play with the health of people.SC Luthra, MHC, Chandigarh

Stricter checks required

There should be a vigorous and strict check by health officials to ensure quality and hygiene in eateries. All food shops should display their license. The culprits should not go scot free. Moreover, punishment under the present law seems not to be a deterrent against adulteration.Aishwarya, Mohali

Strengthen Food Safety and Standards Authority

There is a need to strengthen Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. The organisation should be empowered to even ban a particular product if it does not meet the prescribed standards.Prasoon, Chandigarh

Maintain cleanliness at sweets shops

Sweets shop owners should use pure and good quality products like ghee, khoya, milk, flour, sugar, oil etc. They should ensure that any of their workers is not suffering from any infection. The workers should be dressed in whites and wear white caps. They must wear gloves in their hands while packing and handing eatables.Priya Darsh Growar, Mohali

Show no mercy to violators

No function or festivity is complete without sweets. During the festival season, there is a huge gap in the demand for sweets and its supply. To meet the demand, shopkeepers adulterate dairy products. Hygiene is sacrificed to ensure supplies on time. But who cares? There remains a need for more frequent and stringent checks by the administrative authorities. No mercy should be shown to those daring to play with health and lives of people.SS Arora, Mohali

Quality of food sold has improved

The Prevention of Public Food Adulteration Act was amended to the Food Safety and Standard Act 2006. Since the new law came into force, there has been tremendous improvement in the standard of quality of food served or sold in shops and restaurants.Sukhpal Singh, Chandigarh

Health officials to blame

Officials of the Health Department are to be blamed for sale of adulterated sweets and other food items. One wonders why they remain underground throughout the year only to surface around Diwali?Sat Pal Kansal, Chandigarh

Buyers beware!

Adulterated food should be completely banned by the administration and the violators must be dealt with strictly and penalised. Customers should also check the food before purchasing. They must also be taught ways to check adulteration.Pradyumn Gupta, Chandigarh

Say no to sweets!

The department concerned must be vested with special powers to frame charges against defaulters, fix the quantum of punishment for them, as hundreds of cases against habitual offenders are pending in the courts. A lesser number of convictions in the cases due to the prevalence of archaic laws has virtually led to the rise in cases of adulteration. On their part, people should also say no to sweets.Ramesh K Dhiman, Chandigarh

Health officials interested only in photo-op

The Health Department officials appear at the scene for photo session only during festival season. It seems that in their view, no adulteration takes place during the rest of the year. In USA, every eating joint or such establishment has to get their premises regularly inspected for hygiene.PS Bhullar, Chandigarh

Instill fear of law

A strict implementation of the Food Safety Act is needed because violators have lost the fear of law. Residents should be made aware about dangerous consequences of consuming adulterated food. There is a need to create the fear of law.Vidya Sagar Garg, Panchkula

Casual raids won’t work

Casual raids by the health authorities on eateries fail to act as deterrent against compromising hygiene required for maintaining food safety and standards. Most of the time, defaulters go scot-free because of lengthy laid down procedure for testing of food samples from the notified testing laboratories and providing evidence beyond doubt. Regular checks coupled with simplified, fool-proof procedures should be laid down.Prabhpreet Kaur, Mani Majra

Adopt zero tolerance towards offenders

For an effective check on adulteration of sweets and other eatables, a sufficient number of food inspectors and other staff should be deputed not only around festive occasions but all the year long. The authorities concerned should adopt zero tolerance policy towards offenders as they pose risk to health and lives of public.Sanjay Srivastava, Chandigarh

Cancel licence of those selling spurious sweets

Those selling spurious sweets should be punished suitably and their licence cancelled. Also, under the Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Act, consumers can approach government labs for testing of suspected adulterated food item.Dr Shruti K Chawla, Chandigarh

Send habitual offenders behind bars

The real culprits are officials of the Food and Health Department. The food inspectors are hand-in-glove with shopkeepers, who bribe them and get away with substandard sweets prepared in unhygienic environment. Licences of offenders must be cancelled. Habitual offenders must be sent to jail.Colonel RD Singh (retd), Ambala Cantt

Seizures by health officials nothing but farce

Seizure of adulterated sweets by Public Health authorities is an annual, fictitious and misleading event because neither such seizures effected any improvement in the quality of food being sold nor any violator ever got punished. And, the vicious circle of eroding public welfare continues.MPS Chadha, Mohali

Strengthen food safety cell

The provisions of Food Safety Act, 2006, are not being implemented in letter and spirit due to shortage of manpower, food testing equipment and lack of will power. The Food Safety Cell in the UT Administration needs to be given more teeth, extra manpower, particularly during the festive season, and mobile food-testing vans for on-the-spot results.Ravinder Nath, Chandigarh

Vigorous efforts needed to check adulteration

There is an urgent need to check adulteration in more serious and vigorous manner. Checking of food and sweets by officials concerned should be a regular affair and not limited to festival seasons. Officials taking samples should be properly trained, food testing laboratories be modernised and trials in cases of food adulteration should be completed quickly and in a time-bound manner.Jagdishpal Singh Kalra, Chandigarh

Publicise names of violators

Violators should not be let off with monetary penalty only, as it will certainly be not more than their day’s income. Instead, the licence of offenders should be cancelled for a specific period. During festive season, the Health Department should also publish a list of such violators in local newspapers so as to make general public aware.Upasana, Chandigarh

Ensure transparency

To break the nexus between officials and sweets shop owners, there is a greater need to improve food safety and ensure transparency in implementation of food regulations, including new Food Safety and Standards Act. Offenders should be given stringent punishment.SK Khosla, Chandigarh

Middlemen are the real culprits

Neither milk producers in rural areas nor sweets shop owners in cities indulge in adulteration to maintain their reputation. It is only the middleman who, in order to earn huge profit during festivals, takes to adulteration. Sweets suppliers should be registered with the food safety cell. Defaulters, if any, found be penalised heavily and their licence cancelled.Col. Balbir Singh (retd), Chandigarh

Empower food supplies dept officials

The Department of Food Supplies should be adequately empowered so that immediate strict action could be taken against offenders.Ujagar Singh, Chandigarh

Unaware consumers equally responsible Rajmeet Singh*

For local health authorities, food is adulterated only during the festival season, if the number of raids conducted by the authorities during this time of the year is an indication.
Still, those indulging in adulteration go scot free due to improper sampling that has resulted in a high acquittal rate. Due to poor enforcement and long procedure involved in hearing of the cases of adulteration, the entire purpose of The Food Safety and Standards Act, amended in 2011, is lost.
Statistics reveal that in the last four months, over 20 cases registered under Prevention of Food Adulteration Act have been disposed of and allegations have been proved only in one case. Around 200 cases are pending. Of the total 191 samples taken between April 2013 and March 2014, only nine samples have failed the purity test while eight have been found to be substandard and one was a case of misbranding.
Due to lack of government pressure and priority, the government agencies are rarely seen active from seizure till prosecution.
Besides, lack of awareness on the part of consumers is equally responsible for the large-scale problem of adulteration. Adulteration, be it in milk, sweets, fruits, vegetables and packed food, is still to catch consumers’ attention.
People are more concerned about food inflation or fuel price or how the government is performing but they never care about what they buy and eat daily. Adulteration is not only mixing substandard material in eatables, use of harmful pesticides in food is also a cause of concern.
The problem is widespread and increasing by the day. This is because we do not really care. Not many bureaucrats and politicians take to the streets to check this increasing menace.
The laws are all there. As usual, it is the implementation and prosecution that is found wanting. We also need to look at the western model where adulteration is seen as a serious offence that attracts heavy penalties..

Sweets destroyed

Chandigarh, October 20
A team consisting of the Food Safety Cell inspected a unit in Gobindpura,Mani Majra and a unit in Raipur Kalan village,Chandigarh, preparing ‘patasha’ and ‘khilona’. As many as 5 quintals of patasha and khilona were destroyed under the Epidemic Diseases Act, which were found exposed to dust and flies.

In Kajheri Village about 50 kg of sweets which included laddoo, badana, burfi, kalakand and chutney were destroyed. In Sector 24, about 30 kgs of Badana, Laddoo, Milk Cake and Burfi were destroyed.

Food safety goes all the way to the farm

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Ensuring quality: Across Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, Nestle India supports sustainable farming practices.
Challenges food companies face to bring quality food to your table
French major Danone Foods & Beverages India complains that it cannot source nearly 90 per cent of the milk its competition sources in the country. The reason: quality.
To keep a tight quality check, the food company works with select suppliers, besides engaging in direct distribution – where it transports products from its factories to kirana stores in its own trucks. From dairy to coffee and sauces to poultry products, the variety of food making it to your table from international food companies and retailers is only increasing. And so the concern over locally-sourced ingredients that need to be, for instance, hygienic, free of microbes and within permissible limits of heavy metal or pesticide residue.
Sourcing woes
Local food majors see the sourcing problem quite differently. Ensuring consistent food quality has more to do with the effective management of the supply chain, they say. Especially since farms may be smaller and more scattered in India than in international practice. In fact, decentralised small farms have their advantages, they add, in terms of the mass use of chemicals and antibiotics in food products.
In the dairy context, Danone India-head, Jochen Ebert, in an earlier interaction, said that sourcing was expensive and challenging, but unavoidable, given their rigid standards for milk sourcing and supply chain management. Tough standards become critical, since the quality of food directly affects consumers’ health. Unacceptable residues in a final product consumed everyday could lead to health concerns.
Companies are keen to plug all quality loopholes. Swiss food major Nestle India, for instance, has been working with local dairy farmers since 1961, offering them training and technical assistance to improve the quality of milk. Across Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, they also support sustainable farming practices.
Nestle works with over one lakh milk farmers collecting about 300 million kilograms of milk every year. RS Sodhi, Managing Director, Gujarat Milk Marketing Co-operative Federation, which owns the hugely popular Amul, observes that scattered milk production is the challenge that international companies grapple with in India. It takes time and investments to build this supply chain, besides familiarising themselves with the practice of collecting milk from millions of farmers.
Unlike the western world, where a farmer has 400-500 buffaloes on an average, an Indian farmer owns just one or two buffaloes. Chandra Bhushan, Deputy Director General with the Centre for Science and Environment, says that the decentralised milk production model followed in India has distinct advantages.
There is less chemical use in this model, compared to controlled cattle farms. “For example, the poultry industry in India follows the European model and the quality issues are the same. High amounts of antibiotics are found in chicken in the US as well as here,” he alleges, even as local industry contests that observation.
Scale-up safety
But since the Indian consumer is not one that can be ignored, retail-majors like Walmart India are working with small and developing businesses on food safety.
A key strategy involves reducing risk early in the food supply chain, using a scalable approach to food safety. This allows them to asses their basic and intermediate levels of food safety against established benchmarks, as they grow.