Jan 29, 2015

சென்னைக்கு அனுப்பப்படும் கெட்டுப்போன மாட்டு இறைச்சி: கண்டுகொள்ளாத அதிகாரிகள்

சென்னை மாநகராட்சி சுகாதாரத் துறையினரால் சென்ட்ரல் ரயில் நிலையத்தில் பறிமுதல் செய்யப்பட்ட மாட்டிறைச்சி பார்சல்கள். 

வெளி மாநிலங்களில் இருந்து கெட்டுப்போன மாட்டிறைச்சி சென்னைக்கு அனுப்பப்பட்டு விற்பனை செய்யப்படுகிறது. இந்த சமூக விரோத செயலால் அப்பாவி மக்கள் நோயால் பாதிக்கப்படும் நிலை உள்ளது.
வெளி மாநிலங்களில் இருந்து ரயிலில் அனுப்பப்படும் கெட்டுப் போன இறைச்சிகளை மாநகராட்சி சுகாதாரத் துறை அதிகாரிகள் எப்போதாவது திடீர் சோதனை நடத்தி கண்டுபிடித்து பறிமுதல் செய்து அகற்றுகின்றனர். ஆனால், இதை அனுப்பியது யார்? யாருக்கு அனுப்பினார்கள்? என யாரும் கவலைப்படுவதில்லை.
இது குறித்து விசாரித்தபோது அதிர்ச்சிகரமான பல உண்மைகள் தெரியவந்தன. மாட்டு இறைச்சி வெட்டும் தொழில் செய்யும் ஒருவர், கூறிய அருவருப்பான உண்மை கள்: (அந்த நபரின் பாதுகாப்புக் காக அவரது பெயர் வெளியிடப் படவில்லை)
ஆந்திரம் - சென்னை
ஆந்திர மாநிலம் நெல்லூர், விஜயவாடா ஆகிய பகுதிகளில் இருந்துதான் தமிழகத்துக்கு டன் கணக்கில் மாட்டு இறைச்சி சப்ளை செய்யப்படுகிறது. இதற்கென ஆந்திராவில் சட்டத்துக்கு புறம்பாக செயல்படும் மிகப்பெரிய கும்பல் உள்ளது. நோய்வாய்ப்பட்டு இறந்த மாடுகள், விபத்தில் அடிபட்ட மாடு களை இந்த கும்பலைச் சேர்ந்தவர் கள் சேகரித்து ஒரே இடத்துக்கு கொண்டுவருவார்கள். பல விவசாயி களுடன் தொடர்பு வைத்துக் கொண்டு நோய்வாய்ப்படும் மாடு களை குறைந்த விலைக்கு வாங்கி யும் வெட்டுவார்கள். மாடுகளை வெட்டி பெரிய பெரிய துண்டுகளாக, தெர்மாக்கோல் ஐஸ் பெட்டியில் அடைத்து, ஆந்திராவில் இருந்து தமிழகத்துக்கு வரும் ரயில்களில் அனுப்பிவிடுவார்கள்.
அந்த 4 பேர்
சென்னையைச் சேர்ந்த சகோதரர் கள் 2 பேர், அவர்களின் தொழில் கூட்டாளிகள் 2 பேர் ஆகியோர்தான் சென்னையில் விற்பனை செய் கின்றனர். இவர்கள் 4 பேரிடம் 30-க்கும் மேற்பட்டவர்கள் வேலை செய்கின்றனர். வாரத்துக்கு 2 அல்லது 3 முறை இறைச்சி லோடு வரும். ஆயிரம்விளக்கு மற்றும் சிந்தா திரிப்பேட்டை கூவம் ஆற்றின் அருகே இந்த இறைச்சி பெட்டிகளை கொண்டுவந்து பிரித்து, டன் கணக்கில் குவித்து வைத்திருப்பார்கள். அவற்றை பல வியாபாரிகள் வந்து கிலோ கணக்கில் வாங்கிச் செல்வார்கள்.
இறைச்சியை 10-க்கும் மேற்பட்ட மோட்டார் சைக்கிள்களில் எடுத்துச் சென்று இறைச்சிக் கடைக்காரர்கள் மற்றும் ஓட்டல்களுக்கு சப்ளை செய்கின்றனர். பின்னர் சிறிய சிறிய துண்டுகளாக வெட்டி, 400-க் கும் மேற்பட்ட பாஸ்ட் ஃபுட் கடைகளுக்கும் சப்ளை செய்யப்படுகிறது.
தமிழகத்தில் கடைகளில் ஒரு கிலோ மாட்டு இறைச்சி ரூ.180 முதல் 200 வரையும், ஆடு ரூ.400 முதல் ரூ.450 வரையும் விற்பனை செய்யப்படுகிறது. ஆனால் இவர்கள் ஆந்திராவில் இருந்து ரூ.30-க்கு மாட்டு இறைச்சியையும், வேறு மாநிலங்களில் இருந்து ரூ.50-க்கு ஆட்டிறைச்சியையும் வாங்குகின் றனர். பின்னர் மாட்டிறைச்சியை ரூ.90-க்கும், ஆட்டிறைச்சியை ரூ.150-க்கும் விற்கின்றனர் என்றார்.
நேர்மையான வியாபாரிகள்
மாட்டு இறைச்சிக் கடை நடத்தி வரும் வியாபாரிகள் சானுல்லா, விஜயகுமார் மற்றும் பலர் கூறியதாவது:
அரசு விதிமுறைப்படி வியாசர் பாடி அருகே ஆட்டுத்தொட்டியில் டாக்டர்களின் மேற்பார்வையில் மாடுகளை வெட்டி, சீல் வைத்து கொண்டு வந்து வியாபாரம் செய்கிறோம். ஆனால், சிலர் அதிக லாபம் சம்பாதிக்க இதுபோன்று செய்கின்றனர். அவர்களால் நேர்மையாக தொழில் நடத்தும் பலர் பாதிக்கப்படுகின்றனர். மக்களை நேரடியாக பாதிக்கும் இதுபோன்ற செயல்களை உடனடியாக தடுக்க நடவடிக்கை எடுக்க வேண்டும்.
கண்டுகொள்ளாத அதிகாரிகள்
கெட்டுப்போன இறைச்சியை யார் வாங்குகிறார்கள் என்பதை அதிகாரிகள் கண்டுபிடித்து அவர் கள் மீது நடவடிக்கை எடுப்ப தில்லை. இதுகுறித்து மாநகராட்சி சுகாதாரத்துறை அதிகாரிகளிடம் கேட்டபோது, “கெட்டுப்போன பொருட்கள் விற்பனை செய்யப் படாமல் தடுப்பது மட்டும்தான் எங்கள் பொறுப்பு. கெட்டுப்போன இறைச்சியை அனுப்பிய மற்றும் சென்னையில் வாங்கும் நபர்கள் யார்? என்பதை கண்டுபிடித்து நடவடிக்கை எடுப்பது உணவு பாதுகாப்பு மற்றும் கடத்தல் தடுப்பு பிரிவு அதிகாரிகள்தான்” என்றனர்.
உணவு பாதுகாப்பு மற்றும் கடத்தல் தடுப்பு பிரிவு அதிகாரிகளை தொடர்பு கொண்டு கேட்டபோது, “கெட்டுப்போன பொருட்கள் அனுப்புவதை தடுப்பதற் காக ரயில்வே துறையிலேயே தனிப்பிரிவு உள்ளது. இதை அவர்கள்தான் கவனிக்க வேண்டும்” என்றனர்.
இது குறித்து ரயில்வே சுகாதாரத் துறை அதிகாரிகளிடம் கேட்ட போது, “பார்சல் சர்வீஸ் மூலம் அனுப்பப்படும் பொருட்கள் கெட்டுப் போனது தெரிந்தால் அவற்றை கைப்பற்றி அழிப்பது மட்டும்தான் எங்கள் பணி” என்று கூறி முடித்துக் கொண்டனர்.
தவறு செய்யும் நபர்கள் மீது நடவடிக்கை எடுப்பது யார் என்பது மட்டும் கடைசி வரை தெரியவில்லை. பொதுமக்களின் உடல் நலனை பாதிக்கும் இந்த கொடூர சுகாதார கேட்டுக்கு முற்றுப்புள்ளி வைப்பது யாரோ?

Lov Verma is interim FSSAI chief; Dave back to APEDA

With the government holding consultations for a comprehensive review of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, and the deadline for obtaining licence or securing registration by food business operators (FBOs) under the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Business) Regulations, 2011,round the corner, top level churning has begun at the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). 
K Chandramouli has relinquished the post of chairman of FSSAI while advisor Sanjay Dave has moved to parent organisation department of trade and commerce. Interestingly, the apex food authority’s CEO Y S Malik is also relatively new. He took office just three months ago. 
With Chandramouli stepping down following his term coming to an end, senior IAS officer Lov Verma has been given additional charge of chairperson, FSSAI. 
Verma, a 1978 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, is currently serving the Union health ministry as secretary, department of health and family welfare.
According to an order released by department of personnel & training (DoPT), on January 23, consequent upon relinquishment of charge of the post of chairperson of FSSAI, with effect from Jan 23 by K Chandramouli former secretary, health, and IAS officer of UP cadre, the competent authority has approved the assignment of additional charge of chairperson, FSSAI, to Lov Verma for a period of three months with immediate effect. 
Chandramouli joined FSSAI as chairman on Jan 27, 2012. Verma would be there till April and he would be leading the Authority in its most important task of comprehensive review after which a bill would be created to upgrade the existing FSS Act of 2006.
However, there are chances of him being given complete charge of FSSAI after April this year as he is 59-year-old and due for superannuation.
Meanwhile, Sanjay Dave who spearheaded the task of harmonisation of Indian standards with Codex international norms and was advisor to FSSAI, has just concluded his stint with the apex food body and moved back to department of commerce where he will be joining APEDA (Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority). 
Upon his going to APEDA, the charge of enforcement and surveillance has once again come to Bimal Kumar Dubey who is also handling food imports. 
Apart from these developments, according to sources, in few months from now, many other senior director level officers’ tenure with FSSAI is coming to an end. By April and June, at least three more officials’ tenure will end. There may be large-scale rejig wherein a totally new team might emerge else all the officials concerned could be given extension. 
The industry, meanwhile, wants a stable and friendly authority which would pay heed to their concerns. Some of the industry players remained cautious while waiting before the new dispensation takes shape.

State Licensing Authority issues Show Cause Notices for Prosecution

Food Safety and Standards (Licensing & Registration of Food Businesses) Regulations have been effective since they were introduced in August 2011. However, there are still a large number of Food Business Operators, in leading cities and towns that have not yet registered under the Food Safety & Standards Act, 2006.
It is in this regard that Food Business Operators in many parts of Delhi have been issued show cause notices individually by the Licensing Authority for carrying out food business activity without valid license/registration. State Licensing Authorities have given Food Business Operators 14 days’ time to reply with a valid reason as to why prosecution/penalty proceedings should not be initiated against them. The Authority may take action against them in case such food business units do not reply to the notice sent by the State Licensing Authority, as there will be no further communication in this regard.
As per Section 63 of FSS Act, 2006, a person/company carrying out food business activity without a license shall be liable to imprisonment which may extend up to six months and also a penalty of up to Rs. 5 lakhs. However, according to Section 58 penalty for carrying out a food business activity without a valid Registration Certificate shall be Rs. 2 lakhs.
Section 31 of the Food Safety & Standards Act, 2006 clearly states that no food business activity should be carried out without a valid license or registration under FSS Act, Rules & Regulations. As per records from FSSAI till Feb. 4, 2014 last year, only 645 licenses have been issued in Delhi. There are many Food Business Operators who are not willing to apply for a license under Food Safety & Standards Act while many others are ignorant about food safety regulations.
The last date for the licensing/registration of food businesses under the FSS Act, 2006 is February 4, 2015. However, this date applies to the FBOs who are already licensed or registered under the previous laws on food and are seeking conversion or renewal of their existing licenses/registrations. FBOs who are just about to start their food business or those who started doing their businesses after August 1, 2011 should have already applied for the license/registration under the Food Safety & Standards Act.
The Food Authorities have been extending the last date since August 4, 2012 and they have already extended the deadline four times in the past. There is growing panic among Food Businesses Operators who have been issued show cause notices, but already enough time has been given to FBOs by the Food Authorities. It is now the responsibility of the Food Business Operators to follow the guidelines in order to serve the consumer safe and healthy food.
The Show Cause Notices served to FBO have been issued by the Department of Food Safety and which has been signed by the Central Licensing Authority.
Obtaining a license/registration is the first step towards ensuring safe food for the consumer.

Your poisoned food, our unending greed

Akhilanand Mishra will never forget how he found his son Ashish Kumar, “vomiting and with diarrhoea”, indications that the five-year-old child’s body was trying to expel poisons after eating his government-provided midday meal in July 2013.
“I rushed my son to the government hospital, where there was no bed, then to a private hospital, where too there was no bed,” Mishra, 42, a shop-keeper, told IndiaSpend in an interview. “By then the authorities had woken up to the tragedy, and we were advised to take my son to the government hospital. He died en route.”
Ashish was one of 23 young lives lost in Bihar’s Dahrmasati Gandawan village to the carelessness of headmistress Meena Devi. They died after eating contaminated food—the midday meal meant to nourish them.
Meena Devi had stored raw ingredients for the meal next to toxic pesticides and organic manure and the cooking oil in an empty insecticide container.
A quarter of a century before Mishra’s black day, Rajani Baraily, her younger brother and her parents survived similar poisons, but they now live with disability.
At the time, the Barailys lived in Kolkata’s Behala suburb, where they had bought rapeseed oil from a local ration shop. It contained triorthocresyl phosphate, a highly toxic additive. They used the oil for about a fortnight before starting to experience the contaminant’s toxic effects.
The Barailys suffered bouts of diarrhoea and strange sensations in their legs. “We felt very weak in the legs, as if our legs did not belong to us,” recalled Rajani. She was 13 at the time.
“A few weeks later we learned that it wasn’t just us,” said Rajani. “Hundreds of people in our area were suffering the same symptoms—marking the onset of paralysis. We were victims of rapeseed oil adulteration.”
The Behala tragedy left the Barailys permanently dependent on crutches. It has gone down in the annals of food safety, or notoriety, as one of India’s worst-ever cases of food adulteration.
Three days ago, at the other end of the country, 58 students of a government medical college in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, fell ill after eating breakfast at the canteen. “We cannot say anything for sure now,” said P G Sankaranarayanan, Dean In-Charge. Food samples have been sent for testing, and the poisoned students are stable.
The Thanjavur students were lucky because the adulteration of food—wilful or negligent—is one of those unchanging Indian tragedies, playing out with regularity, driven as it is by uncommon greed.
The uncommon greed of common people
Vijay Bahadur can tell you how an unwavering greed for profits takes hold of common people.
Bahadur is deputy commissioner with the Food Safety and Drug Administration, Government of Uttar Pradesh. On January 8, 2015, in Meerut, he confiscated more than 23,000 litres of non-edible oil from traders with licenses to produce mustard oil.
“Traders were passing off non-edible oil of different commodities, other than mustard, costing about Rs 25 a litre, for mustard oil, which costs up to four times as much, with a little help from artificial essence and butter yellow, a substance that makes oil look like mustard oil,” Bahadur told IndiaSpend.
Bahadur admitted to having been taken by surprise—not by the illicit activity but by the traders’ brazenness. “All traders care about is pocketing huge profits,” he said. “They show absolutely no concern for public health. On that day, they were openly selling the adulterated oil and aggressively opposed legal sampling for quality checks.”
The district administration had to provide Bahadur’s team with police guards.
Over two days, Bahadur and his team found more than 28 quintals of broken rice, more than 30 quintals of rice husk and synthetic colours.
Traders used these materials and colours to add volume to spices. “We even found a representative of Maharaja, a so-called reputed spice-brand based out of Kanpur, engaging in such malpractices,” he said.
The traders do not fear the law. Their focus is how to sidestep it and hoodwink authorities. One method is to sell contaminated oil under various brand names. If one is investigated, the others continue.
“It takes them no time at all to introduce a new ‘brand’,” said Bahadur.
The poisons in our food
Across India, this uncommon greed, it appears, is quite common. Research studies reveal a variety of contaminants in food substances across the country.
Milk is one of the most commonly adulterated food items. In a nationwide study of 1,791 milk samples conducted in 2011, 68.4% of the samples departed from Food Safety Standards Authority of India standards.

Source: FSSAI, Consumer Guidance Society of India, research

The study found detergent in 103 samples and skimmed milk powder in 548 samples. Water was identified as the most common adulterant. Cheating was just over twice (68%) as high in urban areas vis-à-vis rural areas (31%). All of the samples from Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Daman and Diu, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal and Mizoram were substandard.
Citywide milk surveys put out different percentages of adulteration. A 2014 study of 50 milk samples supplied to cafes, small hotels and public and educational institutions in Hyderabad found sucrose and skim milk powder in 22% and 80% of the samples respectively. Urea, neutralisers and salt were present in 60%, 26% and 82% of the samples respectively. Formalin, detergents and hydrogen peroxide were present in 32%, 44% and 32% of samples.
Mustard oil (and other edible oils) blended with the oil of Argemone mexicana seed, a poisonous plant commonly called Mexican poppy, has been the subject of many a study. Mustard oil contaminated with Argemone oil is known to have caused dropsy—proteinuria or loss of albumin leading to edema of the extremities—on an epidemic scale in India as far back as 1877.
“Poisoning with Argemone oil can also cause headache, nausea, diarrhoea, erythema (a sensitive reaction of the skin), glaucoma (an eye disease) and breathlessness. In severe cases fatalities are reported due to congestive heart failure,” Dr Saurabh Arora, founder, foodsafetyhelpline.com, a research initiative founded by a food-testing laboratory, told IndiaSpend in an email interview.
Corrupt traders use Argemone seed oil to adulterate mustard oil because it is easily available, cheap and completely mixes with mustard oil. Not surprisingly numerous dropsy outbreaks have been reported in modern India.
One of the worst occurred in Delhi in 1999, when 3,000 people were hospitalised and 60 died. Most of the victims were very poor, people who bought the oil for cooking from local vendors. Another was reported from Dholkhakhara village in Panchmahal district of Gujarat in 2012.
Last year the Consumer Guidance Society of India declared that 64% of the loose edible oil sold in Mumbai is adulterated. The study tested 291 samples of sesame oil, coconut oil, groundnut oil, mustard oil, sunflower oil, cottonseed oil and soyabean oil.
A 2013 Baroda-based study of 40 food samples found higher than acceptable levels of arsenic in cereals, pulses, vegetables and roots and tubers. It also found higher than acceptable levels of cadmium in cereals, fruits and curd.
Arsenic poisoning can have a variety of adverse health effects, including death. Cadmium poisoning, similarily, has dangerous effects, including pulmonary disease and cancer.
Vegetable contamination as a result of contaminated irrigation water does not amount to wilful adulteration. But it is adulteration all the same.
Adulterated food includes substandard food because of inferior raw material or second-rate processing methods or inaccurate storage or packaging. Adulterated food also includes misbranded food and foods containing any sort of contaminant, whether added by design or by mistake.
In 2013, researchers investigating egg contamination in Bareilly, Dehradun and Izatnagar found traces of salmonella bacteria in 5% of the eggs sampled. A 2011 study in Kottayam found 1.33% salmonella contamination of the egg content for commercial layer hens, 2% for backyard raised layer hens and 51.33% for ducks. Ducks eggs are a local favourite.
And the most defining study of all: barely 13,571 of 72,200 (18%) samples cleared food safety authority prescribed quality standards in laboratory tests conducted during 2012-13. Yet only 3,845 of 10,235 cases of adulteration were convicted.

Source: Tribune India

What India needs: more convictions and deterrence
Stemming the poisons being thrust upon unsuspecting consumers in India is challenging. Since health is a state subject, the law has to be enforced by state food and drug administrations. It doesn’t help that most states lack sufficient food safety infrastructure.
In mid December, 2014, authorities announced the start of a six-month-long nationwide survey and testing of food samples in January 2015.
“But India doesn’t need more surveys,” Bejon Misra, an international consumer policy expert said. “India needs more convictions and deterrent penalties, imposed even before court proceedings get underway.”
Misra, the man behind the Jago Grahak Jago (wake-up consumer wake-up) campaign, was a member of the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India from 2006 to 2013. He represented the interest of consumers.
“It was an extremely disappointing experience,” he said of the stint.
“I can safely say the food authority has not taken any such steps in the interest of consumers,” said Misra. “It has become an authority to reward certain government officials. It has become a namesake authority (sic) accountable to none.”
Centre and state pass the buck, do not respect timelines on the implementation of food safety and standards law and compromise the “urgent need” to establish food-safety standards, he said.
To the question: do consumers stand a chance when traders with malicious intent abounds? Misra said: “In 1986, the central government had amended the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act and authorised every citizen to become a food inspector and participate in the task of food safety. But it failed to implement much-needed citizen capacity building measures. So consumers continued to be at the mercy of the food regulator. Recourse lies only in an honest endeavour by the regulators to empower our 1.3 billion consumers.”
Food safety, it appears, boils down to what you and I know, which is not a whole lot.
So, what’s safe to eat?
Awareness starts with knowing what to suspect.
According to the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India, daily use foodstuffs that are most prone to adulteration and contamination include milk products (Khoya, Butter, Ghee, Milk-Based Sweets), Pulses like Arhar and Rajma, Mustard Oil, Groundnut Oil, Poultry and Meat, and Fruits and Vegetables.
Adulteration is rampant in products sold loose.
Packaged products from national brands are likely to be safer, since companies are more concerned about their reputation and brand loyalty. “Buy packed and labelled produce because it is more likely to be genuine and packaged in hygienic conditions,” said Bahadur. “Read the label declarations on the packet.”
Amarjeet Singh of the department of community medicine at Chandigarh’s Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research has co-authored a study examining consumer awareness about food-purchasing practices.
“We found that more than 97% consumers are not performing essential checks,” said Singh. “Consumers must check fruits and vegetables for freshness, cleanliness, cuts, bruises and ripeness.”
His advice: Check the seal and expiry date of canned and bottle foodstuffs. Look for a quality mark—of FPO, ISI or AGMARK—and ensure the lid is dent-free and bulge-free. Make sure eggs are not soiled or cracked.

Common immediate symptoms of food adulteration are fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, pain in the abdomen, nervous debility, paralysis and if left untreated, death. Over a long period of time, foodstuffs laced with toxic substances can cause some cancers, hormonal imbalances, kidney damage, liver disease, or stunt growth.
Stay vigilant. Stay suspicous. A 2014 multi-city food safety survey conducted by Research Pacific for Tetra Pak showed that more than 70% mothers do not immediately connect serious diseases such as jaundice, cholera and typhoid with food safety.
Should you develop symptoms, don’t delay medical treatment. It could cause major complications.
Shalini Joshi, internal medicine consultant at Fortis Hospital, Bengaluru, told IndiaSpend of a man who fell sick after eating contaminated food on his travels but could not seek medical attention until he returned home.
“Severe diarrhoea had led to acute dehydration,” said Joshi. “He was admitted but soon shifted to the ICU because we found that his kidneys had been affected. He had to undergo dialysis a few times to help him recover, which he eventually did.”
Raw food—salads and fruit—are best avoided out of home. Well-cooked food is safer.
From tragedy, some responses
Scores of children—about 120 million across India—eating midday meals continue to be at the mercy of the respective state education departments. The only good to emerge from the Saran tragedy is some remedial action.
In an interview to IndiaSpend, Susanta Biswas, a senior consultant for the midday meal scheme of Tripura’s Education Department emphasised the need for quick action when the worst happens.
“Only five pupils took ill after eating the midday meal at Noapara, but we still rushed all the children, 42 in all, to the hospital,” said Biswas. “We kept the sick students overnight and discharged them the next day after they had fully recovered. All the rest were discharged immediately after a check-up. You can’t take chances.”
A probe revealed a dirty kitchen and kitchen ingredients purchased individually. Noapara’s kitchen has since spruced up. State authorities also started to more closely inspect kitchens in other schools.
“This fiscal, we have punished 280 school heads for negligence,” said Biswas.
Some interest is better than no interest.
Back in Kolkata, Rajani, her family and hundreds of others continue to battle their disabilities.
After being struck down with partial paralysis, the Baraily family spent an agonising year in two hospitals. That helped them to regain some strength and mobility in their arms. Rajani went back to her studies.
Lately, she’s tried to find a job but failed. The state government gives the family Rs 300 each as compensation each month.
“I feel numb, not angry,” said Rajani. “What bothers me is why doctors don’t have a cure for us.”
In Bihar, Akhilanand Mishra is an angry man, waiting for justice.
“I want nothing less than the death sentence for the guilty,” said Misra. “They promised us a fast- track trial. Eighteen months have passed and there’s been no conviction.”
Indiaspend.org is a data-driven, public-interest journalism non-profit

Officer, kin get threats for detaining truck with spurious food

GHAZIABAD: A food safety officer and his family were threatened by an unknown caller while he was on duty on Wednesday. Subsequently, an FIR was lodged against an unidentified person. 
According to police, food safety officer Yaduveer Singh received the threat call at his mobile phone around 11am, when a team headed by him was collecting samples of milk products from a truck in the Kavi Nagar. The truck was intercepted following a tip-off that the truck was carrying spurious food products. 
"The caller did not identify himself. He asked me to release the truck immediately. When I refused to do so, he threatened that he would come to my house and kill me and other members of my family. I informed my team about the call and later filed a complaint at the Kavi Nagar police station. We have collected samples from the truck and sent them for testing to Lucknow," Singh told TOI. 
Ghaziabad Police have lodged an FIR under Section 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC based upon the complaint filed by Singh. 
Later in the day, city magistrate, Kapil Singh, also called up police to take cognizance of the complaint. "We have traced the caller after examining the call detail records of the food safety officer. A hunt has been launched to nab him. The name of the caller cannot be divulged since that would prompt him to flee," said Kavi Nagar SHO Avnish Gautam.

‘Retailer sold expired malted drinks’

A major corporate wholesale dealer in the district has been found to have sold expired malted milk hot drinks. The dealer had also offered discounts on these products. A raid was conducted on the outlet on the outskirts of the city on January 12, in which officials seized 57 cans.
Tests performed at the Government Food Safety Laboratory here, the results of which were known on Wednesday, confirmed that the products were “misbranded and contravened the rules”. A case will be filed against the outlet under the Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006, a senior official in the Tamil Nadu Food Safety and Drug Administration Department (Food Safety Wing) told The Hindu .
According to sources, the raid was conducted after a consumer alerted the officials regarding the sale of expired products. Upon seizing the bottles, the officials found subtle alterations in labels, which while appearing minor, were a serious violation of the norms.
An official said that the food products with shelf-life of more than three months must mention the ‘best before’ month and year in the label. However, this hot drinks company had printed ‘best from the date of packaging’ in the label but did not mention the date in the label.
While the product was manufactured in January 2014, it had a shelf life of a year or till December 31. The dealer had the product till January 12 this year. However, the dealer claimed the product was manufactured on January 31, 2014 thereby making it valid till January 31, 2015.
Under the FSS Act, only the month was factored in and all products are presumed to have been manufactured on the first day of the month. The official also pointed out that the product did not have the date in any case. Also, the batch number was also missing from the records.The FSS Act places responsibility for selling safe food products not only on the manufacturer, but also on the dealers.
Those having information about adulteration and other malpractices regarding food products can alert the Food Safety Wing, telephone no: (0422) 222 0922 between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays.

Chamber’s plea for removing ‘irritants’ in Food Safety Act

The Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and remove “irritants” in the Food Safety and Standards Act “which are not in harmony with his resolve to make India a manufacturing hub”.
In a press release issued here on Tuesday, chamber president N. Jegatheesan said the Act contained several inconsistent and impractical provisions which would penalise those in food sector business. “We welcome the intention of the Act but it should be enforced only after making necessary changes to make it business-friendly. Food processing sector offers vast manufacturing and employment scope. However, the provisions in that Act are not in tune with the Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ initiative,” he noted.
He said the Act made it compulsory for food business operators with an annual turnover of up to Rs 12 lakh to get registered and for those who exceeded that turnover to obtain licence by paying a fee of Rs 2,000 every year.
“This licensing mandate will severely impede the growth of food-related business and pave way for re-advent of licence raj. We appeal to the Centre to withdraw the licensing requirement and make only registration mandatory,” he said.
An announcement should be made by the Centre before the expiry of the current licences on February 4. The Centre had so far not consulted the representatives of the food sector on the amendments to be made to the Act, he added.

FDA raid, notice to eatery in VCA Complex

Nagpur: A team of the food wing of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted a raid on Tuesday at Red Diva Foods at VCA complex, Sadar. On finding rat droppings in the bread, the FDA has issued improvement notice to the eatery under section 32 of Food Safety Act.
The FDA team comprising of food safety officers (FSO) Akhilesh Raut and AS Mahajan under the leadership of assistant commission FDA (food) NR Wakode found the place extremely unhygienic. The team had got a tip off from Mohammad Shahid Sharif, president of Anti-Adulteration Consumer Society. 
"The staff didn't wear gloves, they had no aprons on. The eatery had not done pest control for long," said Wakode. The team collected bread samples and sent them for testing to the lab at Pune since the Nagpur lab is yet to appoint technicians. 
Wakode said if the samples were found to contain rat droppings, as was visible on physical examination, the FDA will file a case against REDS in court. The reports of the tests will be available within a fortnight. 
Sharif welcomed the FDA action, but demanded stricter action, including suspension of license. "The staff works in extremely unhygienic conditions, with no medical exam done for years. There were rats and cockroaches all over," he said. 
Besides, the eatery does not mention MRP on products but only in the bills. There is no use by date on products. Sharif claimed the outlet also violates norms of weights and measures and a complaint has been filed there too.

Canned soup 'doesn't lead' to higher than expected levels of BPA in blood

A new research has revealed that coating the mouth with BPA-containing food, like soup, does not lead to higher than expected levels of BPA in blood.
BPA, also known as bisphenol A, is used to make some plastics and to seal canned food containers against bacterial contamination and food, which picks up trace amounts of BPA from packaging, is the major source of human exposure.
Health concerns about BPA center on its potential to mimic certain hormones at really high exposures, but within the last month, the European Food Safety Authority and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reaffirmed their earlier decisions that BPA is safe as used in food packaging materials.
A 2013 study in dogs, however, focused attention on the possibility that their conclusions might be based on incorrect assumptions about how much BPA gets into the human body from food and beverages.
Author Justin Teeguarden of the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory said that regulatory agency conclusions about the safety of BPA were questioned, with increasing frequency and intensity, after publication of the dog study.
Teeguarden added that testing this hypothesis, in humans, became necessary because the dog study challenged conclusions regarding BPA exposure in humans and so to fully coat the oral cavity, 10 male volunteers ate warmed tomato soup in which researchers had placed a traceable form of BPA. They took multiple blood and urine samples over a 24 hour period.
The team found that coating the mouth in this way did not lead to higher levels of the active form of BPA in blood, confirming that there is no merit to hypotheses that BPA accumulates in humans. The entire dose of BPA was eliminated in urine within 24 hours, with no evidence of accumulation.
Teeguarden added that this latest study contributes new measurements in humans that confirm and extend the body of animal and human data and analyses establishing that BPA levels in human blood are even lower than those considered safe by regulatory agencies.