Jul 5, 2015

Where food detectives prowl

The Maggi noodles rumpus first surfaced in this Uttar Pradesh town. Why is Barabanki the bane of adulterators? Avijit Chatterjee finds out

You can't quite tell if Sanjay Singh is enjoying his "two minutes" of fame - or "infamy", as he calls it. The food safety officer, who blew the lid off Maggi noodles, triggering a nationwide alarm, doesn't want to meet the media. And when he is finally buttonholed in his office in Barabanki, some 30km from Lucknow, he emerges out of the shadows most reluctantly.
Singh looks dead tired. It is past 6.30pm and he has just returned to the Food Safety and Drug Administration (FDA) office after carrying out raids against iodine salt dealers and retailers in Barabanki villages. But he is not ready to call it a day yet.
"A lot of work remains to be done," he says.
Indeed, a lot has to be done for the campaign that Singh has been relentlessly carrying on. At this hour, when most other government departments are closed for the day, the FDA department, housed in the district magistrate's office, is buzzing with activity. The food safety officers are busy filing their day's report. Among the triumphs is a 20-litre dispenser of bottled water which was confiscated from Barabanki even before it was manufactured - if you go by the date printed on the bottle.
"We are one of the firsts to arrive and the last to leave. On most days you will find us working even at 8pm or beyond," says another food safety officer, A.D. Pandey.
Barabanki is an enigma. If there are scores of cases of food contamination reported from here, the Uttar Pradesh town also has the most active campaigners against adulterated food.
"We have strict instructions from the district magistrate as well as other senior officers to conduct inspections and raids on a daily basis and file our reports and findings at the end of the day. Moreover, after Maggi, our work has doubled as we have been instructed to carry out raids against other packaged food manufacturers too," Pandey says.

IN FOCUS: (Top) The store from which the noodles samples were taken; (above) food safety officer Sanjay Singh. Pictures by the author
How did the Maggi episode unfold? Singh, the nemesis of many an unscrupulous dealer and seller in the area, stresses that he has no personal "bias" against the product or its manufacturer. But on the eve of Holi on March 10 last year, during a routine drive to check contaminants in instant food packets and other edibles such as potato chips and spices, he collected some Maggi samples from an outlet that stocks Nestle - the manufacturers of Maggi - products at Barabanki.
The samples were sent to a government laboratory in Gorakhpur for tests. The lab highlighted the presence of MSG (monosodium glutamate) in Maggi - which can lead to health problems in some consumers. To be doubly sure, Singh collected more samples and sent them for tests to the Gorakhpur lab. The reports were the same again.
He then notified Nestle about the irregularities. The company demanded a fresh test in the Central Food Laboratory in Calcutta. The Calcutta state-run lab found, in addition to MSG, a lead concentration of 17.2 parts per million (ppm), nearly eight times the permissible limit.
"When you get such disturbing reports about a product like Maggi which is consumed by millions of children, you cannot sit idle. After all, the work that we do is directly concerned with the health and well-being of the people," Singh holds. He raised the matter with his superiors, and soon it had become a nationwide issue - leading to the government's ban on Maggi last month.
The small and shabby FDA department - with just enough space for four to five people to sit - is where the action is in the UP town. Apart from this, there is nothing particularly striking about the district. The place is not small, though - it has six tehsils and covers an area of around 4,000 sqkm.
Barabanki was once an affluent centre of opium trade. But today it looks weary. A few old temples and run-down buildings remind a visitor of its past glory. The area is mostly dotted with small hutments and shops. Occasionally, you come across one or two small departmental stores and eateries. A few multi-storeyed buildings have come up, too. A huge clock tower in the middle of the town looks out of place - for time moves at a slow pace here.
But not at the office of the FDA, which has been the bane of the food adulterators' life, as well as a beacon of hope for the residents who regularly approach the department with complaints on food and drug adulteration.
"Whenever we get any complaint from the people we carry out investigations, collect samples and send them to the laboratory for tests. We regularly carry out drives against food items in which adulteration is mostly found - such as in vanaspati ghee, edible oil, pulses, fruits, packed foods, spices, confections and send them for tests to labs in Gorakhpur or Ghaziabad," Pandey says.
If the test reports show up nothing, the officers inform the manufacturers that their products conform to standards set by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
"If the test reports are adverse, we inform the manufacturers and if they want further tests we send the products to our referral lab in Calcutta. If the test reports from there come positive, we initiate action as per the law," Pandey adds.
Following an FSSAI directive, the department's efforts are now focused on collecting samples of other noodle brands such as Yippee of ITC, Knorr of Hindustan Unilever and Foodles of GlaxoSmithKline, and of varieties of macaroni and pasta. "We have not been selective," Singh explains.
Across Barabanki, the fear of contamination is visible. The popular Easy Day store, which stocks Nestle products, opposite the district magistrate's office, is almost empty in the evenings. The racks that were once packed with the ubiquitous yellow packets of Maggi noodles are also bare.
Notices on shops seek to assure customers that their products are safe. "Yahaan par asli maal milta hai (You get genuine products here)," some hoardings in Barabanki's markets scream.
The local community, clearly, worries about adulteration, which authorities say is at its peak during festivals such as Holi or Dussehra, when the sale of edible goods shoots up. In summer, when the production of milk decreases, adulteration in milk becomes a serious issue.
In a startling admission, the Uttar Pradesh government told the Supreme Court last year that adulteration of milk was rampant in the state and confessed that it had failed to take effective steps to curb it. The contaminants in milk include white paint, caustic soda, detergent, shampoo, urea, starch and blotting paper - which can seriously harm the heart, lungs and liver.
But officials stress that adulteration is not specific to Barabanki. Ram Araj Maurya, additional commissioner, FDA, UP government, points out that it is found in all the 75 districts of the state, as it is elsewhere in India.
"It is only that things get reported from here because we undertake regular drives against adulterated foods," adds additional district magistrate of Barabanki Prem Shankar Pal.
But because Barabanki is strategically located - it lies at the heart of the Awadh region, leading to seven districts - many believe that a nexus of politicians and criminals has been using the region as a laboratory. Officials fear that the adulteration takes place at the level of middlemen and unscrupulous traders. Sometimes, contaminants are added in the manufacturing unit itself.
A popular cold drink, Pal adds, showed the presence of insecticide in samples collected by FDA officials from its bottling plant in Barabanki last year. "The matter was reported to the company and action as per the law was taken," he says.
Barabanki is vulnerable to adulteration also because the area is not far from Lucknow and is on the route to Varanasi, with National Highway 28 passing through it, points out district magistrate Yogeshwar Ram Mishra.
"It is not by chance that the Maggi thing was reported from Barabanki. Adulteration is as routinely reported from Barabanki as it is from other districts. Barabanki is an important district and is not very far from the state capital; so such things keep happening," UP Food Commissioner Praveen Kumar Singh says.
Barabanki has also been levying penalties on food companies with adulterated products. "Since January 2015, we have collected around Rs 10.32 lakh as penalty. Last year, we contributed around Rs 12.29 lakh to the state exchequer. Both punitive and legal action is taken against offenders," Pal says .
According to a recent report by FSSAI, Uttar Pradesh led the country in penalties paid for food adulteration in 2014-15. Over Rs 2.5 crore was paid in penalties last fiscal year, with 1,223 of the 5,018 samples collected found to be contaminated. As many as 161 criminal and 1,457 civil cases were registered on food contamination charges, resulting so far in 83 convictions.
In comparison, West Bengal emerges as among the worst performing states when it comes to collecting and testing food samples. According to the annual food testing report for 2012-2013 (the latest figures available for West Bengal) by FSSAI, only 91 samples were collected and tested in the state. Forty-one samples were found adulterated or misbranded, but no cases were lodged against any of the offenders.
Bengal, clearly, is no Barabanki. But the district could well teach the rest of the country a lesson.
Danger
Some common adulterated items
  • Packaged foods
  • Vanaspati ghee
  • Edible oil 
  • Milk
  • Spices
  • Iodine salt
  • Confections
  • Molasses
  • Fruits

Delhi government to launch campaign against body boosters




Youngsters are getting hooked on to a wide variety of substances even though these have severe side-effects. 

Food supplements: Doctors caution against effects

Barely weeks after banning the sale of Maggi, a popular noodles brand, the food department of Delhi government is set to launch a campaign against so-called muscle builders which are, in fact, unhealthy food supplements.
A significant number of youngsters, especially gymnasiumgoers, consumes these health supplements to nourish their body and enhance their physique. But several complaints against these body boosters have now come to light, prompting the department to prepare an action plan against such products.
"We want to confirm if there are steroids in these health supplements, which are marketed in the garb of healthy and nutritious items. Our team has prepared a plan and we will be collecting samples from the market," department of food safety commissioner KK Jindal told Mail Today.
According to health experts, most of the health supplements available in the market are laced with steroids. Since these items are easily available at any pharmacy, many youngsters are getting hooked on to a wide variety of substances that promise to boost energy, appearance, performance and immunity, even though they have severe side-effects.
"These food items are highly expensive. One has to spend more than Rs 5,000 to purchase a single box of these supplements. It is very important to have proper awareness before purchasing such items," Jindal added.
Steroids, also known as cortisol, are different from anabolic steroids used by athletes and body-builders. These help in treating cancer patients, people with arthritis, severe burns, anaemia, delayed puberty and suchlike.
Unnatural means
"These are extremely harmful for health. Youngsters should focus on healthy food items rather than opting for unnatural means to strengthen their body," Dr Girish Tyagi of the Delhi Medical Council told Mail Today.
Consumption of dietary supplements causes side-effects such as abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhoea, increasing weight due to water retention and muscle cramps. It also affects kidney function and enlarges the heart muscle. The side-effects of anabolic steroids include damaged liver and kidneys and, in some cases, swelling of the brain. The use of dietary supplements is being heavily debated across the world for their suspected side-effects, with many countries even contemplating banning them.
The terms 'steroids', 'roids' or 'juice' usually refer to anabolic steroids, which are synthetic (manmade) substances similar to the male sex hormone, testosterone. The term 'anabolic' refers to muscle growth.
According to experts, athletes wrongly believe that these substances will increase their alertness or aggressiveness on the field.
However, negative sideeffects - such as decreased concentration, nervousness or not being able to sleep; not to mention some serious health risks - can cause more serious problems to a player's performance.
For the majority of individuals, the protein needs of their body can be met through a balanced diet. Therefore, protein and amino acid supplements do not offer any added advantage over eating foods that are sources of protein (such as chicken, meat, fish, eggs, nuts and tofu).
Recently, the Ludhiana police had arrested a man who was preparing fake health supplements in the city. A team of health department officials raided a house in Raghubeer Park Chandar Nagar and found locally made steroids and fake supplements.
The team found around 250 boxes of fake supplements apart from 3.5 sacks of starch, 2.5 sacks of milk powder, a sack of custard and a box each of vanilla and chocolate flavours. Two empty boxes of cyproheptadine salt were also found. The salt is used to increase appetite. Four empty boxes of dexamethasone, a steroid, were also found.
A survey conducted by Assocham in 2012 had revealed that about 78 per cent of adolescents in the country's urban areas consume at least one dietary supplement such as pills, energy drinks, steroids or high-protein powders.
Also, over 85 per cent of school and college athletes said their coaches and fitness trainers encouraged them to take supplements similar to steroids.
What is the rule abroad
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) of US - manufacturers and distributors of dietary supplements and ingredients are prohibited from marketing products that are adulterated or misbranded. This means that these firms are responsible for evaluating the safety and labelling of their products before marketing it. In the US, anabolic steroids are controlled substances; they can legally be used with medical prescription. This was determined by the Anabolic Steroids Control Act of 1990, which added anabolic steroids to the Schedule III drug list.
Canada
Steroids are legal here but they are listed under the Schedule IV drugs which means there are some exceptions and punishments, but they are less severe. Although legal to possess anabolic steroids in Canada, the 'system' does have its own loophole. Anabolic steroids in Canada are not a high priority to the government. The one downfall is that the US has made steroids a bigger priority, and often the Canadian government is not too far behind.
Australia
The possession, use and supply of steroids, other than by prescription from a medical practitioner, dentist or veterinarian is illegal as is its unauthorised import. Queensland has amended the Drugs Misuse Regulation Act (1987) to boost the scheduling of steroids to Schedule 1: the highest level for dangerous drugs in the state, carrying, possession or supply penalties of up to 25 years. That move towards criminalisation is similar to tough penalties introduced in NSW and Victoria.
UK
Anabolic steroids are classified as class C drugs under Schedule 4, which is divided in 2 parts; Part 1 contains most of the benzodiazepines and Part 2 contains the anabolic and androgenic steroids for their illicit misdeed potential. Part 1 drugs are subject to full import & export controls with possession being an offence without a prescription. It is against the law to illegally supply anabolic steroids in the UK. Conviction will carry a penalty up to 14 years in prison and/or fine. It is extremely rare to see a steroid case solely involving anabolic steroids.Consumption of dietary supplements causes side-effects such as abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhoea, increasing weight due to water retention and muscle cramps.

Watch out! Banned chemical dyes poisoning your platter

VISAKHAPATNAM: That yellow-tinted appetizing dum biryani from restaurants or the silver-coated kaju barfi from sweet shops that denizens love to treat themselves to may not be at all safe for consumption and have severe health implications. Despite a government ban on toxic chemical dyes like metalin yellow and silver, food adulteration using these chemical colours is going on unchecked in Port City.
In fact, biryani samples collected recently from a popular restaurant in Rushikonda revealed the presence of metalin yellow. This banned chemical substance was also found in daal and other cooked curries and biryani in eateries in RTC Complex and Maddilapalem area. Similarly, the chemically-induced silver colour layer is used by most sweets shops to make the products look attractive. Ideally, a thin silver sheet should be placed on the sweets but lab analysis found that almost all sweet shops, with an eye on profits, use cheap tin foil that is a toxic heavy metal.
The city, which has a population of around 22 lakh and hundreds of eating joints, just has three food inspectors and no exclusive food safety inspection department in GVMC to keep an eye on things. Regarding this unchecked adulteration, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL — Number 161 of 2015) has also just been filed in the AP High Court by a city-based lawyer and is coming up for hearing before the chief justice on Monday.
Senior advocate and social activist IM Ahmed said, "Alarmed at the rising incidence of food adulteration and lack of proper inspection, I have filed this PIL in the high court. GVMC runs the show with just three inspectors and does not even have vehicles for inspection. Moreover, most of the restaurants and hotels are owned by politicians and their relatives. Therefore, the government officials don't want to enter into disputes with them and issue trade licenses to anyone who asks and pays for it."
"Had there been proper and unbiased inspection of all small and big eateries, most food centres would have failed the lab test either for adulterating food with banned chemical colours or for using food colours beyond the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) permissible limit. During Ramzan and Eid, almost everyone eats haleem. But even the colour of the cooked chicken and mutton haleem is not uniform. Sometimes it's brown, sometimes yellow and at times dark brown. Haleem samples too should be lifted for lab analysis. Besides, it should be made mandatory for eateries to display inspection certificates," he added.
According to experts, the presence of these toxic and carcinogenic chemical dyes used in food has several adverse impacts on health and can cause irreparable damage to the kidneys and also affect the liver, the two most vital organs. Professor Nageshwar Rao from the chemistry department of Andhra University, explained, "The chemical dyes affect the nephrons and when the kidney can't filter the chemicals, they get deposited in the kidneys and lead to chronic kidney diseases. Again, the toxic and poisonous substances are sent by the body to the liver for treating or processing. When they can't be treated, they start depositing the substance in the liver. After a while, the deposits cause degeneration of the liver and eventually cause liver cancer."
Apart from the more harmful synthetic dyes used as food colouring substances in eateries, bakeries and confectionaries, at times relatively less harmful metal salts are used in raw food, for instance copper sulphate to impart green colour to vegetables. "Metal salts usually escape the screening process meant to detect chemical dyes. They pass off as natural colours in High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) Test," added Prof Rao.
KN Swaroop, deputy food controller, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Andhra Pradesh, said, "First of all, GVMC doesn't have a separate food safety or food inspection department due to which sanitary inspectors double up as food safety officers. It comes under the medical and health department of GVMC. The previous GVMC commissioner had designated sanitary inspectors as full time food safety officers and there's no separate post for food inspectors. They also have just three inspectors for the entire GVMC limits."
Statistics procured through RTI
Vizag City has a population of around 22 lakh and an area of almost 682 sq km
Fast food selling centres: 254
Restaurants: 170
Hotels: 46
Canteens: 38
Trolley sale or push cart vendors: 3,280
Total number of food safety officers: 3
Food samples collected annually for lab analysis —Around 650.
Food samples collected between January and May 2015 — 127
Food samples that failed lab test and were found to be adulterated — 54.
DEADLY DELICACIES
Insomnia and nervous system related diseases
Allergy and skin diseases
Psychological and thyroid problems
Increase in harmful blood cells
Cancer
Kidney ailments

Now, cooked food under varsity lens

Cocktail effect of pesticide residues in ingredient vegetables
In a move aimed at enhancing food safety standards, Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) is planning to carry out regular laboratory analysis of cooked food to assess the chemical cocktail effect of pesticide residues in the vegetables.
The Pesticide Residue Research and Analytical Laboratory under the KAU will be equipped to analyse samples of staple vegetarian dishes such as sambar, aviyal and thoran, Vice Chancellor P.Rajendran said.
“To assess the toxic impact of chemicals on health, it is important to assess how much of pesticide residues are left after cooking. Though most pesticides are known to break down on exposure to heat, some may become more toxic in combination with others. The cocktail effect could be more in dishes which are a combination of several vegetables.”
The pesticide residue lab carries out periodic analysis of vegetable samples by testing them in isolation but scientists feel that it is more important to address the manner in which chemicals mix and react with each other.
Analysis of cooked food samples presents a different kind of challenge for scientists. Unlike testing vegetables in isolation which follows validated methods, cooked food samples will have to analysed individually and in combination.
It is a highly complex process, admits Thomas Biju Mathew, Professor and principal investigator of the project. Changing dietary habits can also pose a challenge in analysing cooked food for pesticide residue.
“Initial investigations revealed that 85 to 90 per cent of pesticide residue in amaranthus decomposes on cooking while in the case of chilli, there is no significant reduction on exposure to heat. Depending on the chemistry, the cocktail effect can intensify or diminish in some preparations,” Prof. Mathew said.
Periodic tests carried out at the KAU laboratory have revealed heavy pesticide contamination of vegetables imported from neighbouring States, in contrast to those grown domestically.
Curry leaf, coriander leaf, mint leaf, and green chilly regularly supplied from big farms across the border showed heavy load of profenofos and chlorpyrifos, organophosphorous fertilizers not recommended for vegetables. High levels of pesticide residue were also detected in samples of okra, cabbage, and cauliflower.
Set up under the All India Network Project on Pesticide Residues, the KAU laboratory is equipped with sophisticated instruments such as gas chromatograph, liquid chromatograph, and mass spectrometer to detect even minute traces of pesticide.
Staple dishes such as sambar, aviyal, and thoran to be analysed
Cocktail effect more in dishes which are a combination of vegetables
Cocktail effect of pesticide residues in ingredient vegetables

‘Foreign particles found in two packaged water bottles’

Balakrishna K., rights activist, showing the bottle with foreign particles to presspersons in Udupi on Saturday.

Members of a human rights group have urged the district administration to take action against a local packaged water bottle manufacturing company, as foreign particles were seen in two of its sealed drinking water bottles.
Addressing presspersons here on Saturday, Balakrishna K., general secretary of State unit of International Human Rights Action Committee, said that some members of his committee, who had attended a wedding at Udyavara last week were given a sealed water bottle manufactured by a packaged water bottle company near Udupi. But they found a dead spider in it.
When he (Mr. Balakrishna) went to purchase a water bottle from a retail outlet in Udupi on July 3, he got another bottle of the same company and it had foreign particles floating in it. He showed both the sealed bottles at the press meet here.
No details
Mr. Balakrishna said that though both the bottles carried an ISI mark, they had no other details such as batch number, date when it was packed or maximum retail price. This was a violation of the law, he said. .
The sealed water bottles from this company were widely circulated in the district. People consuming water from bottles containing foreign particles might suffer food poisoning, he said.
The district administration should immediately confiscate water bottles of this company and take immediate legal action against it, he said.
“We will take up the matter with the State government ,” Mr. Balakrishna said. Meanwhile, Kumara, Additional Deputy Commissioner, told The Hindu that the Food Safety Officer had already visited the factory of the company and collected samples from there.
“The samples would be sent to a lab in Mysuru for testing. Based on the report from the lab, action would be taken,” he said.
The Food Safety Officer had also been told to look into the issue of non-publication of batch number, manufacturing and expiry dates on the bottles, Mr. Kumara said.
Food Safety Officer collects samples from the compay

DC Impact: Damage control by Complan over insects in bottle

Heinz India, the Indian division of the British brand owned by H.J. Heinz, issued a clarification from its headquarters in Mumbai saying they were investigating the consumer’s complaint to determine the facts.

ALAPPUZHA: The Complan company has started damage control measures following the Deccan Chronicle report on Friday about a bottle of the ‘planned milk drink’ infected by insects and beetles. The bottle concerned was bought by a consumer, S. Shiju, from a shop at Chengannur on Tuesday.
Heinz India, the Indian division of the British brand owned by H.J. Heinz, issued a clarification from its headquarters in Mumbai saying that they were investigating the consumer’s complaint to determine the facts. “We are asking the consumer to return the product to us so that we may conduct a thorough analysis of the product. We will take appropriate action based on our findings because quality, food safety and customer satisfaction are paramount at Heinz India,” it said.
Mr Shiju had sent a legal notice to the company over the issue. A company statement said that a representative would be sent to Chengannur to meet the customer on Saturday. “Apart from this, the company would take samples from the piece and analyse the reason for the degradation of the food,” it said.
The food safety wing in the state has also ordered checking of all pieces in the particular series. Mr G. Sreekumar, food safety officer, Chengannur circle, told Deccan Chronicle that the particular shop would be inspected on Saturday to find out whether other bottles had been affected.

Gujarat extends ban on Maggi for another month

The state government, on June 4, banned the sale of Maggi noodles for one month in the state after the lead and monosodium glutamate levels in the noodles were found to be above the prescribed limits.

The Gujarat government on Saturday extended the ban on Nestle's Magginoodles for another month as the company failed to produce safety standard reports, an official said.
"We have extended the ban on Maggi because the company failed to furnish reports regarding the safety of its product," Gujarat Food and Drug Control Authority commissioner H G Koshia told PTI.
"We have also extended the ban on Hakka noodles of SK Foods for one month as it too did not produce reports on safety," he added.
The state government, on June 4, banned the sale of Maggi noodles for one month in the state after the lead and monosodium glutamate levels in the noodles were found to be above the prescribed limits.
Of the 27 samples, 14 had 2.8 PPM to 5 PPM (particle per million) of lead, as against the prescribed limit of 2.5 PPM, according to the state government.
Koshia said the authorities also found a product of Surat-based 'Badri's Yummy Noodles' unsafe for consumption due to high lead content, and banned its production, sale and distribution in the state for one month today.
Maggi noodles have been banned in many other states following the allegations of high levels of lead and MSG.