What ban? Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation still collecting octroi on gutka

While the ban on gutka and pan masala came into effect in July 2012, several bodies seem oblivious to its implementation. For instance, the octroi department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has been allowing consignments of gutka inside Mumbai by collecting octroi on the tax invoices/bills of the same. dna has documentary evidence of some of these tax invoices that were issued this year.

The BMC’s octroi department gave their nod to tax invoices for at least four consignments of gutka that were brought into the city in January, May, July and August this year.

Only recently, the Mumbai Central GRP had registered a case against BMC personnel for allowing gutka inside Mumbai, flouting the ban. After this, some civic body employees had approached the Mumbai sessions court for anticipatory bail, which was rejected.

Ideally, the octroi department should inform the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as soon as they catch a consignment of gutka. The products are then seized and the people carrying them are booked under the relevant sections of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.

Mahesh Zagade, FDA commissioner, said, “I have written to all the authorities concerned to help us in implementing the tobacco ban. It is absolutely wrong on the BMC’s part to allow such consignments into the city and the authorities should take this seriously.”

A senior civic official said, “We have initiated an inquiry into the matter to ascertain whether the inspector concerned did it with malafide intentions or it was a genuine mistake.” The state government’s ban on the production and sale of gutka was estimated to have caused a loss of almost Rs100 crore. The government claimed that the losses incurred were secondary and their primary focus was to safeguard the citizens from cancer and other gutka-induced health issues.

However, it is common knowledge that gutka is still sold at several places in the city at exorbitant rates.

China's food sector must have confidence in NZ rules: NZ food minister

On Wednesday, New Zealand's minister in charge of food safety sought to reassure food industry representatives from China and other major markets that they should have confidence in New Zealand's food regulation.

“It was the job of the government to make sure the regulatory policy framework was internationally recognised as fit for purpose so that food exporters could build on that level of confidence to persuade consumers to buy New Zealand food products,” Nathan Guy, primary industries minister, said in a speech at the Global Food Safety Forum, which was held in Dunedin, New Zealand, between November 13 and 15, 2013.

A group of upto 40 Chinese primary producers and dairy representatives were among the 160 delegates that participated in the forum, which is run by a United States-based not-for-profit organisation and is generally held in Beijing.

“The task is not small. New Zealand has 40,000 regulated food businesses. Each business is responsible for implementing regulated standards across all food production, handling, processing, storage and transportation,” Guy said.

“The system is supported by eleven scientific programmes that test food across the entire food supply chain. More than a million tests a year are commissioned by the ministry for primary industries to monitor the effectiveness of the regulatory system,” he added.

The government was also putting a priority on working closely with regulators in China.

“As a part of this, the ministry for primary industries (MPI) has been working on a 25-point plan to improve our dealings with China,” said Guy.

Two new MPI staff would be stationed in China by the end of the year, in addition to the existing counsellor for agriculture and locally-engaged staff, and MPI was doubling its market access team in Wellington from eight to 16, and investing in training to strengthen and deepen the relationship between MPI and key Chinese regulators.

New Zealand's food industry was hammered in August, when dairy giant Fonterra triggered a global recall of products after a false alert over botulism contamination.

That followed other international concerns over New Zealand dairy products and export licensing problems that saw New Zealand food exports stuck on wharves overseas.

(Source: Xinhua)

Pizza Hut wins 2013 Loyalty & Engagement, Marketing Excellence honours

Pizza Hut, the world’s largest pizza chain with over 12,500 restaurants across 91 countries, swept the 2013 Marketing Excellence Awards and Loyalty and Engagement Awards back-to-back with several recognitions of the brand’s strategy to adopt innovative, effective and contemporary marketing practices that increase customer engagement, conversation and return on investment (ROI).

Nominated across seven Marketing Excellence categories, the brand was honoured with top awards for excellence in loyalty marketing, excellence in consumer insights and market research and excellence in data-driven marketing at the Marketing Excellence Awards held at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Singapore recently.

Pizza Hut also won gold medals for best CRM strategy and best use of consumer insights and analytics, and silver for best use of loyalty-related technology at the Loyalty and Engagement Awards held at the Parkroyal on Pickering Hotel in Singapore recently. The brand’s agency, Capillary Technologies, was also recognised as the engagement agency of the year.

“Brands must be sincere and continuously offer value to their customers,” says Juliana Lim, senior marketing director, Pizza Hut. “Loyalty should not be assumed. We need to be top-of-mind with consumers whenever they are making purchases and every demonstration of support for our brand should be valued and rewarded,” she added.

“Big Data, cloud, social and mobile technologies empower modern marketers to target and engage consumers, generate conversations and analyse results. To stay competitive and capitalise on emerging marketing trends, modern marketers need to leverage  innovative technologies and marketing techniques to build better customer interactions,” Lim continued.

She added, “We are thrilled to be receiving these amazing recognitions of our intelligent customer engagement strategy, which we started two years ago with Capillary Technologies.” Through its partnership with Capillary, Pizza Hut now understands customers better and is able to personalise offers based on consumption frequencies, tastes, day parts and location preferences.

Through the automated Lifecycle Programme, Pizza Hut was able to create consumer responses across 6,000-plus customer clusters based on predicted customer behaviours to drive incremental results.  The intelligent and cognitive customer data analysis ability of Capillary's system allows Pizza Hut to segment customers by purchase behaviours and match them to the right media (e-mail, mobile, direct mail, web and so forth), resulting in above average-response rates versus some of its traditional campaigns.

“We congratulate Pizza Hut on these multiple recognitions,” said Anant Choubey, regional head, Capillary Technologies Asia-Pacific. “Pizza Hut has engaged its customer base with focussed campaigns that target the right customers with the products and offers at the right times to drive incremental sales across its restaurants and delivery business,” he added.

“With our world-class solutions and expertise accumulated by working with numerous global retail brands, Capillary is helping clients to understand and respect their customers’ preferences and choices and win loyalty by tuning their marketing communications with such behavioral indicators in mind. We are also humbled to have received the best engagement agency recognition at the recent LEA event,” Choubey added.

Tuesday Pasta Mania launched at Testa Rossa Caffe outlets in Hyderabad

Testa Rossa Caffe, which has two outlets in Hyderabad (at Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills) and a third in its twin city, Secunderabad, introduced Tuesday Pasta Mania. Patrons can walk in every Tuesday and sample an array of vegetarian pastas (priced at Rs 199 each) and non-vegetarian ones (priced at Rs 249).

The vegetarian pastas include Penne Arabiatta; Penne Panna e Funghi; Spaghetti Aglio e Olio Perperonicino; Fusilli Alfredo; Fusilli Panna e Noci, and Fusilli Marinara. The non-vegetarian ones include Penne Arabiatta e Pollo; Farfalle Polo e Funghi; Fusilli Alfredo e Pollo; Spaghetti Al Ajo Agnelo; Lasagna Pascalino, and Penne Alfredo e Pollo.

UN, Expo 2015 ink agreement to reduce hunger & produce nutritious food

The United Nations (UN) and Expo 2015 signed an agreement, confirming the latter's support for Expo 2015, during which global attention will zero in on the challenge to eradicate hunger and poverty and on producing enough nutritious food for the world's population, expected to touch the nine-billion-mark by 2050.

Expo 2015’s theme, 'Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life', is at the heart of the UN’s founding principles to combat hunger and poverty. Expo will run in Milan for six months from May until the end of October 2015.
“The Expo theme touches upon food security and nutrition, sustainability, poverty reduction, development and cooperation,” said Jose Graziano da Silva, director general, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO); Kanayo F Nwanze, president, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and Claudia von Roehl, director, Government Partnership Division, World Food Programme (WFP).

“The UN system is closing ranks behind the call to bring the vision of a sustainable, hunger-free world to Expo Milano 2015,” the three agencies stressed.

Italy’s foreign affairs minister, Emma Bonino, said, “With Italy being the location of most of the agencies of the UN dedicated to food and nutrition, it goes without saying that for us, this active participation and engagement in Expo is considered by my government as one of the most important engagements we wanted to achieve.”

She said, “Expo is not only the promotion of a theme. We would like to have an Expo which will not be remembered because of skyscrapers or architecture, but because of the ideas, and because of the projects, commitments and ideas that will follow up from this Expo.”

Giuseppe Sala, Italy’s commissioner for Expo 2015, said, “Of all the participants in Expo Milano 2015, the UN was the first international organisation to show its support and is the first to sign a contract.”

“I am very proud of this outcome, and to see the representatives of all three agencies – FAO, IFAD and WFP – that are responsible for food and nutrition at the global level, and which will guide UN participation in Expo Milano 2015,” he added.

“This synergy shows once again the global interest in the theme of the World Exposition. 'Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life' takes on a challenge that needs us united – assuring healthy, safe and sufficient food for everyone, with a view toward sustainable development.”

The work of the UN will be on display across Expo 2015, and its themes mirrored throughout the more than 110 hectares of pavilion space, rather than being one among hundreds of exhibitors.

Expo 2015 will allow the UN to spotlight its decades of knowledge and expertise with the aim of ramping up efforts to one day achieve the goal of healthy, sufficient food for every person on the globe.

Expo Milano is expected to draw some 20 million visitors to Italy in 2015. So far, 22 UN agencies have submitted proposals for exhibits, that will all centre on a common UN message.

During today’s signing ceremony, an international competition was also launched for best practices in sustainable development, which will be on display at Expo.

Despite progress made toward achieving the first Millennium Development Goal on halving the proportion of hunger and poverty, still some 842 million people worldwide are chronically undernourished.

The end of 2015 will mark the deadline for the achievement of eight UN Millennium Development Goals. Yet hundreds of millions of people remain mired in hunger and poverty.

Faced with the need to produce 60 per cent more food for at least two billion more people in 2050, while coping with weather shocks and emergencies linked to climate change, the international community is expected to endorse a set of new goals to address sustainable development in the post-2015 era.

Safety guidelines for juice shops in Kerala

Many outlets found using low-quality milk, ice and water

The Commissioner of Food Safety has issued a set of guidelines to be followed necessarily by juice shops across the State, as prescribed by Section 30 (d) of the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), 2006.

The Commissioner said the guidelines had been issued as many food poisoning cases were being reported by customers of juice shops. A majority of these shops were using milk, ice and water of suspect quality.

All juice shops should have FSSA licences or registration, which should be displayed prominently. The water and ice should be safe and of the prescribed quality.

The fruits, sugar, nuts and other additives used to make juices or milk shakes should be bought only from shops or outlets or traders who had a FSSA licence and the purchase bills should be kept. All packed food items should have the necessary label information. The details of purchase — name of the shop/trader, quantity, price and so on — should be entered in a register systematically and should be produced for inspection.

The water being used should be from a source of impeccable quality and the quality of the water source should be tested every six months at a government-approved analytical laboratory. These reports should be kept in the shop.

Store properly

All food items, including water, in the shops should be stored in covered containers of food-grade quality.

The fruits should be of good quality, with no trace of fungus. The fruits should be washed and refrigerated. Ice should not be stored in polystyrene boxes, but in freezers or ice boxes. Prepared juice should not be stored for long in the fridge.

Food safety officials pointed out that most of the shops were storing milk in freezers well beyond the expiry period for use in milk shakes. This was an unsafe practice.

All employees in juice shops should have medical fitness certificates. They should strictly follow hygienic practices in handling food. Those with any skin conditions or infectious diseases should not be allowed as employees in food businesses.

The environment in which juice was prepared should be clean and the implements used for preparing juices such as mixers, juicers and strainers should be cleaned after every use. The refrigerator and freezer should be cleaned regularly and the last date on which it was cleaned should be displayed on the fridge.

The Food Safety officials have warned of cancellation of registration/licence if these conditions are violated. A period of three weeks has been allowed within which all juice shops should ensure that they are equipped to follow all FSSA guidelines.

Food Safety wing will start inspections on December 1 and juice shops which are found to be failing in hygiene and safety standards will have to face legal action, the Food Safety Commissioner has warned.

FDA camps to offer on-the-spot licence, registration to food business operators

PUNE: Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials have launched a month-long drive to bring all food business operators in Pune on their surveillance radar by registering them or allotting licences.

The officials will conduct camps as well as on-the-spot tendering of licence and registration to food business operators after ensuring due compliance of set norms.

The special drive would ensure that all food operators with an annual turnover of above Rs 12 crore possess a licence and those who earn less than Rs 12 crore a year get a registration certificate, as per the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.

"The drive will continue till November 30 and aims to bring maximum number of food business operators in Pune division on the FDA surveillance radar. All the 56 food safety officials have been asked to conduct the drive seriously and submit daily performance reports. The consolidated report will then be sent to our headquarters," said Shashikant Kekare, joint commissioner (food), FDA, Pune

As per Section 31 (1) and Section 32 (2) of Food Safety and Standards Act 2006, it is mandatory for food business operators to obtain either a licence or a registration from the FDA. Operating food businesses without the mandatory licence or registration is punishable under section 63 of the act.

"Those food business operator who have to renew their licence or registration by November 31 should file an application to do so before the date, failing which they will have to bear a Rs 100-per-day fine after the set deadline," said Dilip Sangat, assistant commissioner (food), Pune.

Since the enforcement of the new Food Safety and Standards Act in August 2011, FDA officials have allotted licences to 29,880 food business operators and registered 91,121 food business operators in Pune division, which includes Pune, Satara, Kolhapur, Solapur and Sangli.

Every business establishment that offers food services, including hotels, restaurants, fast food joints, hawkers, pan shops, tea stalls, vegetable and fruit vendors, meat shops, ration and grocery shops will be inspected by the food safety officials (FSO) for licence or registration.

"The FSOs will get the registration or licence forms filled up from establishments that do not possess licences and/or have not converted old licences or registrations under the new act. An official will recover the fees, issue a receipt and extend spot registration or licence to the establishment," Sangat said

Market checking intensified 6 shops sealed, fine of Rs. 2000 realized from erring shopkeepers

The market checking squad of Food and Safety department headed by Additional Deputy Commissioner today conducted surprise checking of Kulgam town and imposed a fine of Rs. 2000 from erring shopkeepers under Food Safety and Standard Act, 2006.
The squad has also sealed 6 shops for different violations under the said Act besides 13 domestic LPG cylinders were also seized from the hoteliers and daba wallas. The squad has also dispersed wasteful adultered spices of 50 Kgs from the erring shopkeepers.
The Additional Deputy Commissioner warned the erring shopkeepers to abide by provisions of Food Safety Standards Act, 2006, saying that the administration needs cooperation from the general public to curb such violations by the shopkeepers in future.
During the inspection, 20 drug samples were lifted for testing from different drug stores and a challan was also registered. The officers of squad were representing the Drug Controller, Weights and Measures, Municipal Committee Kulgam, CAPD and Police departments.

Team seizes 58 quintals of vanaspati ghee

A team of the Health Department today seized 58 quintals of vanaspati ghee after its due date of expiry from JSM Distributors at Hussainpura village. The firm is a distributor of JMD Oil Private Company Limited, Gujarat, which manufactures vansapati ghee in the name of Good Health Brand.

Disclosing this, Food Safety Officer Manoj Khosla said, "The distributor used to sell vanaspati ghee after its expiry date by pasting new labels of JMD Oil Private Company Limited, Gujarat. We have seized 58 quintals of vanaspati ghee along with several labels."

He said Anoop Singh and Inderjeet Singh, who were present at the firm, had been handed over to the Lahowal police. A written complaint had been sent to the police for registering an FIR against the distributor.

The Civil Surgeon, Ludhiana, Dr Subhash Batta, said, "The team included food safety officers Harpreet Kaur and Manoj Khosla, and the District Health Officer, Dr Abnash Kumar.''

Kanwaljeet Singh, SHO, Ladhowal, said, "I have received a complaint from and the police is investigating the matter. An FIR is yet to be registered."