Mar 20, 2018
Consumer literacy is need of the hour
Adulteration of food items is commonly practised all over the world by the trade bodies. When the price of food production is higher than the price which the consumer is prepared to pay, the seller is compelled to supply a food product of inferior quality, thus occurs the adulteration.
Adulteration is one of the biggest problem faced at the present time and all food items like milk and milk products, vegetables oil and fats, spices and condiments, beverages like coffee, tea, even rice and water are adulterated from many ways.
Adulteration causes many diseases like cancer, lathyrism (neurological disease often resulting in weakness and paralysis of the legs.), liver disease, cardiac failure, kidney diseases and nervous system related diseases.
Besides the common adulterer food items, below are the items which our children and youngsters are consumed daily in the form of snacks.
Chocolates
Chocolates may be regarded as the world’s most popular snack food. An average American consumes over four kgs of chocolates annually, while in Switzerland the world’s leading chocolate producer, a Swiss consumes over double this amount.
South Asia also have a sweet tooth and consumes a considerable amount of sweet, including chocolates. However, it has recently come to light that chocolates can become contaminated in spite of the fact that it has been consumed for centuries without any complaint of any apparent ill effect.
Some of these contaminations are discussed as - heavy metal contamination: It might sound surprising, but heavy metal contamination can be a problem in the case of chocolate too! Since cocoa powder is the key ingredient for making chocolates, the food safety and standards authority of India (FSSAI) has fixed the upper permissible levels for two heavy metals, these are lead and copper.
As per the food safety and standards (contaminants, toxins and residues) regulations, 2011, the maximum level of these heavy metals in cocoa powder are as:
Lead: 5.0 ppm by weight, on the dry fat-free substance.
Copper: 7.0 ppm by weight on the fat-free substance. (Most contaminants are expressed as Parts per Million (PPM).
This means that the concentration of the particular substance is very low, even though the regulatory agency may consider it a significant amount.
One PPM is one part of million or the value is equivalent to the absolute fractional amount multiplied by one million.
Therefore, these metals can cause health hazards in case of continuous consumption of the chocolates containing lead and copper in the upper permissible levels. The lead exposure can cause damage to the central nervous systems, leading to learning difficulties and lower IQ in infants and young children.
Copper exposure can cause general weakness, hypothyroidism, depression, constipation and low blood pressure.
Potato chips and noodles
As per the study was done by the Ahmedabad based Consumer Education and Research Society (CERS) on some popular brands of potato chips/noodles and they revealed that almost all the brands available in the market contain harmful levels of sodium and fat, as excess fat content would trigger health problems like obesity and excessive usage of sodium could cause hypertension.
To make these potato chips and noodles tastier, manufacturers are using taste enhancers, commonly known as E 631.This E 631 is Disodium inosinate and comes from inosinic acid and is naturally found in a variety of animals, such as pigs or fish. This taste enhancer in the potato chips and noodles may cause diseases like Asthma and gout.
Soft drinks
The soft drink sector of the market is a much bigger money-spinner than the bottled water segment.
As per the tests, conducted by the pollution monitoring laboratory (PML) of the centre for Science and Environment (CSE).
The agency analysed the content of 12 its growing popularity means that children and teenagers, who glug these bottles, are drinking a toxic potion.
Soft drink brands sold in and around Delhi and were tested for organochlorine and organophosphorus pesticides and synthetic pyrethroids - all commonly used in India as insecticides.
The test results were shocking as those of bottled water samples contained residues of four extremely toxic pesticides and insecticides: Lindane, DDT, Malathion and Chlorpyrifos.
The higher level of these pesticides and insecticides present in the soft drinks may cause cancer and damage to the nervous and reproductive system in the humans.
Tail piece
There have been various instances of food adulteration in Jammu Kashmir, and people are suffering from gastric problems due to consumption of adulterated food items.
It is highly unlikely that more legislation or increase fines and jail terms alone will reduce adulteration, particularly given the corruption that exists in the enforcement area and low conviction rate.
Greater consumer vigilance and action can help to improve the situation. But such efforts are not fruitful unless consumers themselves are aware of their rights and responsibilities.
Under these circumstances, consumer literacy is the need of the hour with special attention to the low-income groups who suffer the most.
‘New FSSAI norms will curb organic farming growth’
NEW DELHI, MARCH 19
A pan-India advocacy organisation that promotes ecological agriculture has said the recent notification on organic farming by Indian food safety regulator would be detrimental to the growth of organic farming in the country.
The Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA), in a letter to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), said the notification on organic foods issued on December 29 last year, which makes certification mandatory for all barring a small set of farmers, would serve as a major impediment that deter farmers from shifting to organic farming. “As the Food Safety regulator, you are aware of the all-pervasive contamination by agro-chemicals, including of groundwater. We believe that organic farming has to be supported in all ways possible for it to spread to larger areas in a short span, given the need of the hour, the ASHA letter said.
The regulation could deter farmers to shift to, and pursue safer food production systems, because it will involve higher burden on farmers, beyond their financial and other capabilities, it said. “This, in a way, self-defeating to the very mandate of FSSAI,” it added.
This is missing the present notification and in the absence of that, FSSAI rushing in with its unreasonable regulation is an impediment.
“FSSAI should have waited out the implementation of its new regulations until something like this is put into place by State agriculture departments and Union Agriculture Ministry, it said.
It further said that there was no justification for giving the exemption to only “small” producers – this exemption should be extended to all organic farmers of the country, and their collectives.
ASHA also proposed that the regulator should exempt all those organic producers whose stocks are getting marketed through retail outlets that have directly sourced the produce from such organic farmers, without any intermediaries and are directly selling to end consumers (B2C).
“It appears that the situation of small illiterate farmers who desperately need organic farming as a way out of their agrarian distress is not considered when regulations are made,” ASHA said.
Agreement on Food Safety Cooperation signed between Japan and India
Japan and India share the importance of cooperation in the field of food safety for promoting investment in India by Japanese food companies and decided to strengthen the cooperation in this field. As per the announcement, a FSSAI delegation will visit Japan for strengthening food safety cooperation and a meeting for information exchange on food safety will be held, coinciding with this visit.
This announcement was followed by the signing of MoU between Ise Foods Inc. and the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), Government of India, as per which the Japanese Food major will invest approximately INR 217 crores in Poultry farm and egg processing, as part of its Ise-Suzuki India Mega Project, in Telangana, beginning next year. MoFPI will facilitate Ise foods for the establishment of the aforesaid project in India.
Mr. Mitsuhiro Miyakoshi, Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Japan stated that two very important announcements had been made today.
These included the Agreement on the form of phytosanitary measures on the marine food trade between India and Japan and the second was the setting up of a Joint Working Group on Cold Chain between the two countries.
Mr Ashish Bahuguna, Chairperson, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) stated that the FSSAI was focussing on both food safety as well as nutritional value of the food. He was of the view that Japanese foods are known for their safety as well as their nutritional value. He stated that Japanese food has slowly been introduced into India and efforts were being made to adapt Japanese food to Indian tastes.
Mr. Parag Gupta, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries stated that the MoU with Ise Foods was a direct outcome of World Food India which was held in November 2017 in New Delhi. He was of the view that there was much more potential for Japanese companies to invest in India given the fact that it has the technology and know-how in terms of food processing.
Mr Rakesh Bharti Mittal, President Designate, CII mentioned that Japan was the 'Partner Country'at World Food India 2017 organized by Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), last year, with CII as the National Event Partner. This had effectively set in motion the transformatory process of the Indian food processing industry. The announcement of the Food Safety Cooperation between Japan and India and the MoU with Ise Foods Inc is a stepping stone in further strengthening bilateral cooperation between the two nations, he added.
Adulteration has become a big business
With adulteration rampant in the food industry, consumers are at a disadvantage to know the quality of ingredients.
Grey market thrives as consumers look for cheap goods and overlook quality
Adulteration business is thriving, unnoticed by shopkeepers in a hurry. There is a duplicate for most of the popular brands in the market. Edible oil, cereals and auto spare parts... there is a duplicate for everything.
Despite stringent laws and periodical raids by officials, the grey market is thriving as a section of consumers are satisfied with the duplicate product as long as it is cheap, overlooking the quality factor. An edible oil manufacturer of a reputed brand said that Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) rules were clear and specific. But the ‘inspector raj’ was misused for financial gains to aid the grey market.
It is the unsuspecting consumer who falls victim to the evil designs of the grey market. One of the shopkeepers of the auto spare parts hub on North Veli Street said only a trained eye could pick out the duplicate from the original one - be it engine oil, tyre, bulb or even headlight assembly. Profits from fake goods were so attractive that many shops pass them off as originals. And many consumers also happily buy “genuine spares” at a cheap price without tax.
Justifying the trade, a dealer said they sold fakes only to those customers who insisted on low-priced goods and did not want quotation or invoice or bill or receipt.
Oil market
Many of the oil stores on East Masi Street, Sandaipettai, East Veli Street, Munichalai and around Meenakshi Temple sell substandard products. For instance, a gingelly oil packet in one of the shops had no brand name, price and date of packing.
The oil is also sold in ‘loose.’ For the brand-conscious consumers, there are oil packets with names that sound like a reputed brand. Even when there was an address of the manufacturer printed in the pack, it turned out to be fake.
Unholy smoke
A priest in Meenakshi Temple said that though officials maintained that as part of security measures, devotees were not allowed to light camphor in the sannidhis, the real reason was that the smoke from the poor quality camphor remained as soot and polluted the place.
Rajaraman who runs a restaurant on West Perumal Maistry Street said adulteration was rampant in the food industry. “Synthetic masala, which is dark red in colour, is widely mixed in idli powder, ‘kaara sevu’ and ‘cauliflower 65,’ he said.
Tamil Nadu Bakers’ Federation president S. Anburajan said that after branded products came to the market, bakeries, big and small, purchased only genuine raw materials.
There were exclusive vanaspati products available for making bread, cakes and cookies, he said. Tamil Nadu Foodgrains Merchants Association secretary S. Velshankar said that the number of complaints of adulteration from consumers was on the decline. But it need not be construed that adulteration had been prevented. It was because more consumers were aware of products and their shelf-life, and fewer victims.
Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry senior president S. Rethinavelu said manufacturers very well knew the consequences of adulteration. While the government encouraged branding, GST with its different slabs discouraged manufacturers. The government must issue clarification by bringing down the tax structure to 5%.
Health team raids hotel, collects food samples
Kapurthala: A surprise inspection of a hotel on the Jalandhar-Phagwara national highway by the health department team revealed it was not adhering to food safety parameters.
Assistant commissioner (food) Dr Harjot Pal Singh said the checking was carried out on the directions of higher authorities that Hotel Cabbana was compromising with hygienic conditions. Phagwara senior medical officer (SMO) Dr Devinder Singh and food safety officer Satnam Singh also accompanied the inspection team, which collected six samples of the food being prepared and sent them for laboratory tests.
The assistant commissioner said the violations included open dustbins kept in the immediate vicinity of food items, bug-infested Bengal gram and rotten vegetables — cabbage and okra — among other things.
He also said further legal action would be taken against the offenders based on the report of analysis of the state food laboratory, Kharar under the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 and Rules & Regulations 2011.
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