Warning labels on baby foods containing lead in US: Solution likely soon

The issue of warning labels on baby foods containing lead in the US might see a solution in the coming weeks as the lawsuit filed by Environmental Law Foundation (ELF), an environmental group, against some US-based leading baby food makers went on trial recently.

The group has accused Del Monte Foods, Beech-Nut Nutrition and few other companies of selling products containing lead at levels that require warning labels under California Proposition 65.

The case, filed in 2011, is expected to last for several weeks.

Lawyers representing the food companies said the US Food and Drug Administration had tested the products mentioned in the lawsuit and found the levels were below the standards that require warning.

Both sides agree that baby food containing carrots, peaches, pears and sweet potatoes have some lead. The suit also listed grape juice and fruit cocktail.

According to the ELF, lead was one of the very first chemicals listed by the state of California in 1987 as a "chemical known to the state" to cause cancer, developmental and reproductive toxicity.

As per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 500,000 US children aged 1 to 5 suffer unsafe levels of lead in their blood.

Centre to ban sale of junk food and fizzy drinks near schools after summer vacation – INDIA TODAY

 Sale of junk food in and around school premises will be regulated.

                                                               The junk is being taken out of school education across the country. After summer vacations are over this year, children will begin their new academic session in schools that do not have junk foodoutlets within 500 yards in any direction. This revolution in the making was revealed in the Delhi High Court on Wednesday when the Centre said that draft guidelines on regulating sale of junk food and aerated drinks in and around school premises would be ready by July.

Additional Solicitor General Rajeeve Mehra, representing the Centre, told the court that private firm AC Nielsen ORGMARG Pvt Ltd is in the process of framing norms to regulate availability of junk food and carbonated drinks within 500 yards of schools. The senior law officer assured the court that the draft guidelines on making quality and safe food available in school canteens would be in place by July 21. These guidelines will be crucial because there is no official definition of junk food now.

This has created much ambiguity among schools over what food products it should make available to children within its premises. The guidelines will thus clear the confusion and define what food is healthy and what is not healthy.

"We would seek the opinion of food processing companies after making the draft guidelines and prepare the final guidelines soon,"Mehra said.

Most, if not all, schools are kindly disposed to the proposed move. Principal of Laxman Public School Usha Ram said, "We are all up for banning junk food in school premises. We don’t sell junk food in our school. In fact, we were the first one to introduce a Mother Dairy stall in our campus which offers health milk products. "Principal of Apeejay School, Pitampura, D. K. Bedi echoed this view, saying: "It will be excellent if junk food is totally banned in schools. Schools should only offer healthy food like juices and milk products to children. "After recording submissions of the Centre’s counsel, a bench comprising Chief Justice D. Murugesan and Justice Jayant Nath posted the next hearing in the matter for July 22. The Delhi government also displayed urgency in taking ‘unhealthy food’ off the shelves of city schools. The counsel representing the Delhi government, Anjum Javed, said that the Lieutenant Governor has the power to issue directions to city schools but that can be done only after the Centre frames guidelines on the issue.

Status report Meanwhile, the Centre also filed a status report in court, explaining why it has taken so long to complete the study in the matter. It told the court, however, that all the research has been completed now.

Assuring the court that all the fieldwork has been done and now it would not take much time, Mehra said, "We are pleased to share with you that we have been able to incorporate date from Meghalaya and Assam, due to which the study had to be extended. We have now completed the survey in both North-Eastern states, which was quite difficult due to the prolonged closure of schools in these regions."In January last year, the court had given six months to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to frame guidelines on banning sale of junk food and aerated drinks in and around educational institutions.

The court was hearing a PIL filed in 2010 by Rakesh Prabhakar, a lawyer for an NGO called Uday Foundation, seeking a direction banning sale of junk food and aerated drinks in and around schools. The petition said, "It is time we change the way kids eat in schools. Such a ban will set new standards for healthy food. On one hand, children are taught in classroom about good nutrition and on the other hand we continue to make junk food available to them."

A welcome idea The schools also welcomed the idea of banning junk food and carbonated drinks in and around school premises and advocated only the sale of healthy foods in school premises.

Earlier, the court also asked the FSSAI to consult the All India Food Processors’ Association (AIFPA) and restaurant associations for

framing the guidelines. AIFPA, in its application, had said that it deals with processing of fruits and vegetables, meat and fish, milk and milk products and also the manufacturers of biscuits and confectionery products. It also said that it may give some advice to the FSSAI.

Food inspector is worth Rs 10cr – THE TIMES OF INDIA

The state vigilance bureau sleuths raided the house of a food inspector, Surendra Kumar, on Road No. 8 at AshokNagar in KankarbaghColony here on Wednesday and unearthed assets worth over Rs 10 crore disproportionate to his known source of income.
The team, led by SP Parvez Akhtar, raided Kumar’s 4-storeyed building and seized documents suggesting purchase of 38 kattha land in Ashok Nagar, 23 acres land near the famous hot water spring in Rajgir, and agreement paper for purchasing 60 acres land adjacent to the 23 acres land. All these plots of land were purchased in the name of Buddha Educational Trust. Six bank accounts in the SBI, PNB, Axis Bank and IDBI besides two bank lockers, insurance policy worth Rs 9 lakh and jewellery weighing one kg gold and 500gm silver were also seized. Akhtar said Kumar, posted in the state capital, was not present at his residence during the raid.
Kumar had joined the health department in 1979 as a clerk and after six years he got promoted to the rank of drug inspector in the same department. Earlier, he was posted in Bhagalpur. In 2008, he was shifted to the headquarters as food inspector.
Kumar had, in fact, become a terror for the hotels and fast food joints’ owners. A bureau official said such was his terror that Kumar didn’t allow a multinational fast food chain to operate in the state capital for well over a fortnight until a sum of Rs 15 lakh was paid to him. That apart, he was allegedly on the payroll of several food joints in the state capital, the official said, and added that the bureau could not act against him earlier as it was going on with their consent.
ADG (vigilance) P K Thakur said the bureau had started receiving complaint against Kumar during the latter’s stint in Bhagalpur. "We were closely watching his activities," Thakur said.
Akhtar said Kumar had opened an ITI in front of his house in Ashok Nagar and was planning to open a dental college and a medical college in Rajgir for which he was on a land-purchasing spree.
The bureau, after receiving complaints against Kumar, initiated a preliminary inquiry and found that he had shown Rs 25.35 lakh as legal source of income and another Rs 32 lakh procured as loan from a bank for opening the ITI. Akhtar further said it was detected that though his legal source of income was to the tune of Rs 57.35 lakh, he had declared to the state government a whopping Rs 1.17 crore as his income. After the documents scrutiny, it was found that he was having assets worth Rs 5.30 crore.
The raid was going on till late evening. On the basis of documents seized, the SP vigilance said that Kumar’s assets might be assessed over Rs 10 crore. He further said prior to carrying out the raid, the vigilance bureau had lodged an FIR (19/2013) on April 16, 2013 and then procured a search warrant from the special vigilance court.

 

 

Juice vendors under scanner – THE TIMES OF INDIA

The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) food safety officers conducted extensive drives in various parts of the city to check the sale of inferior quality mango juice as well as other items. The officials also found carbide being used to ripen mangoes during the raids.

According to VMC officials, several shops had started selling mango juice, sugarcane juice, mangoes, watermelons and other items throughout the city. It had come to light that many of these shops used bad quality mangoes or stored the juice in unhygienic conditions.

In all, 22 establishments were checked by the civic body since Tuesday in various parts of the city. The raids were conducted at Vasna Road, Old Padra Road, Tarsali and other areas.

VMC deputy municipal commissioner R K Sugoor said that the 668 kg of mango juice, 438 kg of fruits largely comprising mangoes and watermelons as well as 150 kg of ice were seized and disposed off during the drive. He added that the use of carbide powder to ripen mangoes had also come to light during the raids.

 

Illegal phenylbutazone residue in horsemeat of low concern: EFSA & EMA

A joint assessment from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) concluded that the illegal presence of residues of phenylbutazone in horsemeat is of low concern for consumers due to the low likelihood of exposure and the overall low likelihood of toxic effects. EFSA and EMA confirmed that it was not possible to set safe levels for phenylbutazone in food products of animal origin, and therefore its use in the food chain should remain prohibited.

As part of this remit, EFSA and EMA delivered a series of recommendations to further reduce the risk of this substance entering the food chain, focussing on measures to strengthen traceability. The agencies reiterated the need to improve the monitoring and reporting of data on the presence of residues of veterinary medicines in live animals and food products of animal origin across the European Union (EU).

The request for advice from the European Commission followed the recent identification of beef products adulterated with horsemeat and the discovery of the anti-inflammatory drug phenylbutazone in horse carcasses illegally entering the food chain.

Phenylbutazone was previously evaluated by EMA in 1997 to establish maximum residue limits (MRLs) in food products of animal origin. The data available at that time did not allow a conclusion to be drawn on the level of phenylbutazone that could be considered safe in food of animal origin. As no MRL could be established, animals treated with phenylbutazone were not allowed to enter the food chain. In their joint risk assessment, experts from EFSA and EMA used all currently available scientific evidence to assess the toxicity of phenylbutazone and reconfirmed these conclusions.

EFSA and EMA identified the health hazards associated with phenylbutazone and assessed whether consumer exposure to this substance through its illegal presence in horsemeat could be of concern.

Phenylbutazone is occasionally used in human medicine for the treatment of patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis and has been linked to rare occurrence of a blood disorder, aplastic anemia, which has been observed in one in 30,000 people treated. The report concluded that the likelihood of a predisposed individual consuming horsemeat contaminated with the drug and developing this condition is low – between two in a trillion and one in 100 million. This estimate took into account the likelihood of consumers being exposed to phenylbutazone on a given day from the consumption of horsemeat itself or from beef products adulterated with horsemeat.

EFSA and EMA found that while the genotoxicity of phenylbutazone (that is, its potential to damage human DNA) could not be excluded, this was considered unlikely. The report also concluded that the risk of carcinogenicity is of very low concern given the estimated infrequency of consuming horsemeat containing residues of phenylbutazone (consumed as such or in beef products adulterated with horsemeat) and the estimated low levels of the drug to which consumers could be exposed through the diet. In estimating possible levels of phenylbutazone in foods, scientists used the highest concentration of the drug reported in the testing programme carried out by member states.

Traceability and monitoring
EFSA and EMA provided advice to further reduce the risk to consumers from the illegal presence of phenylbutazone in horsemeat. Proposed EU-wide measures include the introduction of a reliable identification system for horses and other so-called solipeds, harmonising checks of phenylbutazone and improving the reporting of monitoring data for its possible presence in foods. The final suggestion echoes a recommendation made by EFSA in its latest report on Veterinary Medicines Residues. 

Chinese chocolate import ban extended to 2014; Sold illegally in India

Despite a ban imposed on the import of Chinese chocolates into the country by the Centre from September 2008 till date, these chocolates are being illegally sold in some parts of the country.

The chocolates were banned due to presence of harmful melamine. A similar ban exists on Chinese chocolates in many other countries. Earlier, India had banned them till June 2013, but the ban has now been extended for one more year.

Anand Sawant, an official from Port Health Organisation (PHO), JNPT Port, informed, “Chinese chocolates have been banned in India and we don't import them. There was an issue about usage of melamine in milk and milk products from China. Since 60 per cent of chocolates are made from milk products the ban has been further extended till 2014. Only hard-boiled & sugar-boiled candies, and confectionaries are imported from China.”

A Maharashtra food minister, on the condition of anonymity, informed FnB News that despite ban, Chinese chocolates were imported and sold illegally in India.

An official from the ministry of commerce and industry, said, “The ban on Chinese chocolates was imposed following reports that Chinese dairy products contained traces of melamine. The ban on milk and milk products from China was imposed in early September 2008 and now it has been extended further.”

The minister from Maharashtra, said, “Chocolates which are illegally imported from China are mainly sold in the grey market. The packaging is attractive and many a time the product does not even comply with labelling norms. It is mostly imported through wholesale and container channels, thereby avoiding Customs inspections.”

Imran Hamidani, director, Fine Chocolate Beryl's Gourmet, stated, “The total chocolate industry, is estimated at Rs 3,000 crore and a mere 5-10 per cent would comprise of imports. Because India's per capita consumption of chocolate stands at 40 gm against 10 kg in the UK.”

He added, “The ban on Chinese chocolates import will not have a significant impact as whatever brands that are on the shelves do not come from China. Most of the international brands such as Mars and Ferrero Rocher come from Europe and West Asia. Now even India is making brands such as Ferrero Rocher in the country itself.”

A senior official from the Indian Confectionary Manufacturers Association (ICMA), on the condition of anonymity, concluded, “The toffee business in India will be affected by the ban in which Chinese have marginal presence.”