Delhi food safety commissioner’s claim on FBO license conversion false

Saturday, February 15, 2014 08:00 IST
Ashwani Maindola, New Delhi

                                                                        There is no truth to Delhi’s food safety commissioner K J R Burman’s claim that food business operators (FBO) in the capital got 2,500 licenses converted before the February 4, 2014 deadline lapsed. This was stated by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the country’s apex food regulator.

Only 645 licenses have been obtained so far, while the process of registration is yet to commence. In fact, it has been sluggish since August 5, 2011, the date the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), 2006, came into effect. It is, however, expected that the capital would be on track by the time the extended deadline – August 4, 2014 – lapses.

Sources stated that the Mayur Bhavan office, where the registration and licensing would take place, was to be ready by April 2013, but it remains incomplete.

Only the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (331); Dadra and Nagar Haveli (200); Daman and Diu (258); Manipur (394); Meghalaya (633); Mizoram (228); Nagaland (160); Puducherry (332) and Sikkim (360) have issued fewer licences than Delhi.

Officials destroy expired soft drinks in Vellore

Expired soft drinks of several leading brands that were on sale in different shops in Vellore were destroyed on Thursday.

In view of death of a Cuddalore girl after consuming soft drink of a leading brand recently, food safety officials in Vellore district started crackdown on soft drinks that bear the same batch number of the bottle the girl reportedly consumed.

The team of officials checked lots of shops in new bus stand, a godown of a stockist of the beverage, shops in Tirupatthur, Jolarpet, Arcot and Ranipet.

Though they were on lookout for the soft drink bottles bearing the same batch number that was allegedly responsible for the death of the girl, they found and destroyed large number of expired soft drink bottles.

Worth of the soft drinks destroyed on Thursday is reportedly around Rs. 10,000.

CAT order to UT on food safety officer’s plea for appointment

Chandigarh, February 14
In an order passed today, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) today directed the UT Administration to consider the UT’s senior-most food safety officer for appointment as designated officer under the Food Safety and Standards Act and fill the post on a regular basis in three months than filling it by way of deputation.

The CAT disposed of the application filed by Food Safety Officer Sukhwinder Singh, who had moved the tribunal in 2011, seeking direction to the UT administration for considering him for the post. He had challenging the UT Administration move to fill the post by way of deputation.

Singh had claimed that he was the senior-most food safety officer, thus was eligible to be appointed a designated officer under the Food Safety and Standards Act.

In his application in September 2011, He had submitted: “The post of designated officer is being occupied by an official who has come on deputation, in addition to his own duties. He is on deputation for medical services as SMO from Haryana whereas as per the Act and rules, a whole-time officer is required to be appointed designated officer for performing duties under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, and the rules framed thereunder in 2011.”

Laxity undoes hi-tech food packing

Experts Urge Consumers, Retailers To Be Vigilant

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

Chennai: Significant technological advances in the packing industry may have increased the shelf life of food products but lack of enforcement of safety norms remains a serious concern in the state.
    The death of an eight-yearold girl — reportedly after she consumed a soft drink — in Cuddalore has again trained the spotlight on food adulteration and lack of checks.
    Low levels of consumer awareness make the situation more dangerous, say activists. Santhana Rajan of Consumer Association of India says few customers check the shelf life of food products.
    Health experts say the problem is exacerbated by the hightemperature, high-humidity conditions, which cause food to go bad fast, in Chennai and other parts of the state.
    The perils of consuming spoilt or adulterated food cannot be stressed enough, doctors say. Deaths are rare, they say, but consumption of adulterated food increases the risk of cancer and liver and heart damage in the long term.
    Tamil Nadu Bakers Federation (TNBF) president S Kumar says soft drink wholesalers, for example, regularly visit outlets that stock their products in urban areas and shopkeepers return beverages past their use-by date. “But this is not the case in rural areas where retailers sell soft drinks that are several months old,” he said.
    But customers say fake products, including soft drinks, are a major problem in Chennai where unscrupulous retailers are ready to sell them for a marginally higher profit.
    TNBF secretary S P Natarajan says it is the responsibility of retailers to alert distributors well before products reach their use-by date.
    “The standard practice for bakeries is to use bread and milk that goes bad to make other bakery products like rusk and paneer that are safe to consume,” he said.
    Sources in the soft drink industry say some companies divert old stock for sale on trains. “The passengers buy the soft drinks because they don’t have many alternatives,” he said.
1,000 soft drink bottles seized
    The food safety and drugs administration department on Thursday seized in Anna Nagar more than 1,000 bottles of the drink of the same batch which caused the death of an eight-year-old girl. District food safety officer S Lakshmi Narayan said they seized 1,080 bottles of pet bottles with batch number AH 46 L4 with manufacturing date 23-01-2014 from a distributor. “We have stopped the sale of the soft drinks carrying the batch number and manufacturing date. The department has also created awareness among vendors to stop the sales of the affected batch”. Complaints can be made to the food safety department at 04423813095 or emailed to commrfssa@gmail.com. TNN

Deadline for registration under Food Safety Act extended Tribune News Service

The deadline for licence and registration under the Food Safety Act has been extended by another six months till August 4.

Not taking any chances of imposing the Act forcefully on the food business operators in an election year, the Central government has taken the step. The State Health Department has received a notification for the extension of the deadline that had expired on February 4.

Implemented two years ago on August 5, the Act makes it mandatory for the food business operators to get licences or register with the Health Department on the basis of their annual turnover.

It aims at not only bringing all the food operators under a single roof but also implement the consolidated rules and regulations on them.

As per the Health Department figures, there are 5,000 businessmen who should get licences and around 65,000 small-time vendors who should get registered.

Expired bottles of soft drink confiscated by food safety officials in TN

Stocks which had crossed expiry date and continued to remain on the shelves of outlets, have been seized

Following the death of an eight-year-old girl here after she allegedly consumed a soft drink, officials today raided shops in the district and seized 200 bottles of the beverage besides 800 bottles, which had exceed the expiry date.

"We raided shops and eating joints in several places including Therku Seplanatham, the village of the deceased girl, Mantharakuppam, Neyveli and Vadalur and have seized 200 bottles that formed part of the same batch consumed by the victim," M P Raja, Food Safety Officer, Cuddalore District, told PTI.

Soft drinks stocks which had crossed expiry date and continued to remain on the shelves of outlets, have been seized.

"More than 800 bottles of expired beverages have also been seized and we have sealed three shops in Mantharakuppam for violating Food Safety laws," he added.

Stating that the "drive" to seize all bottles of the "suspicious batch" would continue in the next few days, the official requested the general public to avoid consuming the batch number AH 46 LR [23.01.2014] 3:33 of a popular soft drink major.

"We don't know the total number of bottles in this batch. We are taking appropriate steps," Raja said.

Girl dies after consuming soft drink, 3 siblings hospitalised TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Cuddalore: An eight-yearold girl from a village near Neyveli died after allegedly consuming a soft drink on Sunday night. Her two sisters and a brother, who also consumed the drink, are undergoing treatment at a hospital in Puducherry.
    Police said Anjapuli, a contract worker with the Neyveli Lignite Corporation, bought a 500ml soft drink from a shop in Sheplanatham village near Neyveli. After reaching home, he offered the soft drink to his daughters A Lalithaa, 10, A Abhirami, 8 and A Kausalya, 6 and son A Paramasivan, 3.
    Within minutes of consuming the soft drink, the four children complained of stomach ache, nausea and vomiting. A panic-stricken Anjapuli took them to a doctor in Kurunjipadi, who referred the children to Cuddalore Government General Hospital, where Abhirami died.
    The doctors on duty referred the other three children to Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (Jipmer), Puducherry. The condition of Lalithaa is said to be critical, while the others are out of danger.
    The Mantharakuppam police registered a case under Section 174 (suspicious death) of the Code of Criminal Procedure following a complaint by the village administrative officer. Police booked the shop owner, Nagarathinam, under Section 328 (causing hurt by means of poison with intent to commit an offence) of the IPC and arrested him. He was produced before a local court and was remanded in judicial custody.
    District officials sealed the shop and collected samples of the soft drink from Anjapuli’s house. They also gathered all soft drink bottles belonging to the particular batch that killed the girl. They also raided nearby shops and seized more than 800 soft drink bottles which had crossed the expiry date.
    Food safety officer (Cuddalore district) M P Raja confirmed that the contaminated soft drink cost the girl’s life. Officials will send the samples to the forensic laboratory in Villupuram. The deceased girl’s viscera have been preserved and will also be sent for a detailed analysis to ascertain the cause of her death.