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.

Designated safe street food zones to be set up shortly in Delhi

TIMES VIEW

Good hygiene's in good taste

The plan to develop eight safe street food zones in Delhi is a boon for food lovers and street food vendors alike. Delhi, like many other cities in the country, can boast of a rich street food culture. Representing an eclectic range of delectable dishes, street food exemplifies the rich traditions of Indian cuisine that is affordable and readily available. In fact, Indian street food is one of the many attractions for foreign tourists visiting India. But street food outlets and push carts have been often found wanting in hygiene standards. This is precisely why creating safe street food zones to ensure minimum standards is a good idea.

In this initiative, the National Association of Street Vendors of India (Nasvi) will train vendors in the safe zones to follow basic hygiene practices such as wearing aprons and gloves, and handling food properly. Once the vendors pass the training, their outlets will be eligible to receive a safety stamp from Nasvi. It's in the interest of street vendors themselves to obtain a safety certificate, as this would automatically result in positive advertisement for their outlets and draw in more customers.

Designated street food zones would also help regulate food-borne diseases through focussed inspections. Further, these would enable municipal bodies to provide better services to vendors such as clean drinking water, sanitation etc. There are lessons here to be learnt from Taiwan's famous night markets. The latter helped put Taiwanese cuisine on the world map, with thousands of tourists visiting the small East Asian nation just to sample its food culture. Apart from delicious dishes, Taiwan's night markets also curb food adulteration and other unscrupulous practices through collective responsibility. There's no reason why this model cannot be replicated here, with eight safe street food zones soon rising to 80, 800, 8,000 and so on.

COUNTERVIEW

Stop harassing vendors

Sanjiv Shankaran

Delhi's attempt to carve out 'safe zones' for street food needs to be seen in the context of an ongoing attempt to enforce standards of hygiene and sourcing on food served across all commercial establishments in India. This attempt is misguided. The bone of contention is not that there should be no standards, but a one-size-fits-all approach to regulation is impractical. It is reminiscent of other well-intentioned but ill-conceived regulations such as those concerning labour, which ended up being counterproductive.

Estimates suggest there may be 10 million street food vendors in urban India who cater to millions more. From a functional standpoint, the most important aspect of street food is cost. It meets the needs of consumers on a tight budget as capital costs for street food vendors are low. Any attempt to regulate street food needs to consider trade-offs. Enhanced standards of hygiene in the form of gloves and bottled water would translate into an increase in price of food. This development, in turn, would reduce access to inexpensive food for some consumers. The trade-off here is between enhanced hygiene and access to food. When seen in this context, 'safe zones' and regulatory directives on hygiene to street food vendors rest on a weak foundation.

It is inaccurate to portray street food vendors as impervious to change. Across urban India, some street food vendors have enhanced hygiene standards in response to pressure from customers. In parts of Delhi, it is common to come across street food vendors using gloves even without a regulatory directive. Increasing public awareness and higher incomes will usher in better standards. A premature move here will only make street food vendors vulnerable to harassment at the hands of petty bureaucracy and the food unaffordable for some consumers.