Oct 17, 2017
FSSAI launches platform to use leftover food
Several food recovery partners come together to start Web-based initiative
On the occasion of World Food Day, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India introduced an initiative -- Indian Food Recovery Alliance (IFRA) – in collaboration with food recovery partners in the country to fight hunger and also prevent food wastage in India.
This Web-based platform, launched at the national Conclave on Nutrition Security - Convergence and Partnerships, allows interested donors, individuals and volunteers to register themselves to be a part of this initiative. The main platform and mobile applications will be accessible to the registered people to donate food, and the food recovery agencies will ensure proper distribution of the food..
Multiple agencies
The donors will be able to track information and status of food they will donate through their personal login. This platform will also provide guidance to citizens, food businesses and various food recovery agencies on prevention of food loss and wastage and safe recovery of surplus food.
In India, multiple food recovery agencies, such as No Food Waste, Feeding India, Indian Food Banking Network, Roti Bank, Annakshetra, Giveaway India and Robin Hood Army among others, are functional. They feed an average of over a lakh people per day in more than 70 cities.
FSSAI CEO Pawan Agarwal said: “Wastage of food and loss is recognised as a global challenge also there is significant food loss and food waste in India.”
“This initiative is an effort to recover surplus food that is lost and wasted at various stages. Through this initiative, several food recovery agencies will be able to work uniformly towards one common goal of saving food and distributing it to the needy so that India is able to eradicate hunger problems.”
Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey released FSSAI’s report on ‘Large-Scale Food Fortification in India – The Journey So Far and Road Ahead’ at the event.
The redesigned and updated Web portal on food fortification was also launched by the Minister.
FSSAI initiative to collect, distribute surplus food to needy
NEW DELHI: In a bid to prevent food wastage, regulator FSSAI today launched an initiative to create a common platform of agencies that collect surplus food and distribute among the needy.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) introduced its new initiative 'Indian Food Recovery Alliance' (IFRA) -- a coalition of food recovery partners. These partners showcased their existing models of food recovery and showcased an integrated web-based platform that is being developed. "This web-based platform, released on a pilot level, allows interested donors, individuals and volunteers to register themselves to be a part of this initiative," the FSSAI said in a statement.
After the pilot study, the main platform and mobile applications will be accessible for the registered people to donate food.
Food recovery agencies will ensure proper distribution after reasonable due diligence. The donors will be able to track all the data, information and the status of the food they will donate through their personal logins.
"This platform will also provide guidance to citizens, food businesses and various food recovery agencies on prevention of food loss and food waste and safe recovery of surplus food," the statement said.
In India, multiple food recovery agencies are already functional in various cities.
Together, 12 such organisations including No Food Waste, Feeding India, Indian Food Banking Network, Roti Bank, Annakshetra, Giveaway India, Robin Hood Army etc., feed on an average over a lakh people per day in more than 70 cities.
"Alliance of these food recovery models with uniform implementation process will enable smoother pan India coverage," the statement said.
FSSAI CEO Pawan Agarwal stressed on the need of an integrated approach of food recovery networks across India to combat food waste issues.
He said this initiative is an effort to recover surplus food that is lost and wasted at various stages in India every year.
"Through this initiative several food recovery agencies will be able to work uniformly towards one common goal of saving food and distributing it to the needy so that India is able to eradicate hunger problems," Agarwal said.
He mentioned about the draft regulation of surplus food recovery and food distributions that has been already formulated.
FSSAI also reviewed the progress on Food Fortification so far, shared the experiences and key leanings and convened various stakeholders to discuss the way forward.
A comprehensive report on 'Large Scale Food Fortification in India - The Journey So Far and Road Ahead' was released by Ashwini Kumar Choubey, the Minister of State for Health & Family welfare.
Choubey appreciated the efforts of FSSAI and food recovery networks to join hands for this noble cause.
9k litres of adulterated semi-refined oil seized from private godown
Agra: More than 9000 litres of adulterated semi-refined soyabean oil was seized by a team of Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA) officials here on Monday.
A team of officials from FSDA, led by assistant commissioner of food safety Vineet Kumar, conducted a surprise raid at a private (Yogesh Enterprises) godown at Jagner road Rui Ki Mandi of Shahganj police jurisdiction and found large quantities of adulterated cooking oil being offloaded from truck inside the godown.
Officer Kumar said, "We have seized over 9000 litres of adulterated semi-refined oil, which is unsuitable for human consumption. The pungent smelling oil was red dark and the owner of oil godown was selling the oil in local market."
"We have also seized eight 50 kg weighing ghee containers, as the owner of godown Yogesh couldn't present the bill and the supplier name from who he bought the product. This suggested, that ghee too was adulterated," he added.
The FSDA have collected the samples of ghee, oil and sent to the laboratory for testing.
Official sources said, "People in the oil godown were blending low grade refined soybean oil with high-end branded mustard oil. They have been selling adulterated oil bottles for several weeks."
It may be noted that adulteration of food items becomes even more rampant on festive occasions with local food processing units and dairies supplying low-grade items to customers.
According to FSDA officials, "If the seized sample of cooking oil fails laboratory tests, then an FIR will be lodged against the plant owner following which the accused may be awarded a jail term of upto three years."
Show-cause notices served on five sweet shops
The Food Safety and Drug Administration department officials have issued show-cause notices to five shops situated in Tirupur city and its suburbs after they found that the sweets were either prepared or sold in unhygienic and poor sanitary conditions in the said shops.
K. Tamilselvan, Designated Food Safety Officer, said that the show-cause notices were slapped on the shop owners because of reasons varying from unclean surroundings, open storage of baked items to unhygienic practices in the preparation level.
The defects were noticed during the checks carried out over the past few days till Sunday.
Mr. Tamilselvan said the department had also given instructions to shop owners not to mix sweets made of milk with other sweets either during storage or at the point of sale.
“The shelf life of milk sweets is only three days. So it should not be mixed with other edible items and stored as the entire lot could get decayed,” he added.
The officials would also be checking in the next few days leading to Deepavali whether the sweets were compulsorily sold in ‘food grade’ containers according to the laws. “During the checks, we are ensuring that the shops were not storing water in open containers so as to reduce the breeding possibilities of mosquitoes,” said Mr. Tamilselvan.
Found Diwali mawa at a cheaper rate in Mumbai? Beware, it might be adulterated
While mawa is usually made from milk fats, the adulterated one is made using vegetable oil, milk powder and sugar in Mumbai
Officials have seized more than 2,44,888kg sweets across Maharashtra.
Buying Diwali sweets this week? Beware of cheap mawa. Activists have written to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about more than 15 tonnes of adulterated mawa being allegedly sold in sweet markets across Maharashtra.
Activists wrote to FDA minister Girish Bapat and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis,saying an illegal mawa racket has been running in Maharashtra and Gujarat for the past two years.
“While mawa is usually made from milk fat, it is adulterated using vegetable oil, milk powder and sugar. More than 40 trucks of adulterated mawa have been travelling from Gujarat to Maharashtra before Diwali for the past two years,” said RPY Rao, president, Society for Social Awareness of Civil Rights, an NGO that works in the field of public health.
Rao said the adulterated mawa is distributed in Thane, Ghatkopar, Kurla and Mumbai Central, using which barfis or pedas are made and are sold during Diwali.
“It is packaged under an unknown brand name, and sold in packets of 5kg and 10kg at almost half the market rate. I have urged the minister and the CM to carry out an inquiry with the help of the FDA’s vigilance commissioner,” Rao said.
Pallavi Darade, FDA commissioner, Maharashtra, told HT she hasn’t received any notification yet. “I will definitely look into the issue,” she said.She said the FDA has been seizing adulterated sweets and other edibles since August 20.
“We have seized more than 2,44,888kg sweets across Maharashtra as a part of our festive drives. As many as 961 samples are being tested in our laboratories to find out how they have been tampered with,” Darade added.
A letter by the Food Safety Standards Authority of India — addressed to Dr H G Koshia, food safety commissioner, Gujarat, and Dr H S Kamble, food safety commissioner, Maharashtra, — directed both states to initiate action on a complaint filed by Rao regarding the sale of barfi made using adulterated mawa.
“Both states are aware of the issue, but no action has been taken since the pat two years. Officials shouldn’t wait for a tragedy, such as mass food poisoning, to initiate action,” Rai added.
Mobile food testing lab in State soon
GUWAHATI, Oct 16 – The Commissionerate of Food Safety will operate a mobile food testing laboratory in the State from next month to strengthen the food safety mechanism.The mobile lab will be equipped with all basic facilities and the required quick testing instruments and rapid diagnostic kits for detection of adulteration in various food samples, particularly milk and milk products, edible fats and oils, water, spices, etc. Besides, experts will also make people aware about how to differentiate original food items from adulterants.
Sources said through these units, 24 tests can be conducted on milk, nine on edible oil, 17 on spices and 11 on other foods. “We had asked for two but the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has sanctioned one such vehicle initially. We hope to launch it next month,” they said.
An official said the mobile labs will basically serve for preliminary surveillance purpose. “During the spot testing, we will get some idea what is going on and then detailed tests can be later done at the main lab. Through the mobile tests, we will know how to proceed. It will save a lot of time taken to collect the samples and bringing it to the lab located at Bamunimaidam,” the sources said.
Each vehicle will have three technical personnel and a driver. “The FSSAI will impart training to the personnel. The authority will bear the recurring expenses of the mobile lab, like on fuel and chemicals used for testing and other maintenance,” the official said.
Though primarily the mobile lab will be deployed in Guwahati, it will also be used during incidence of food poisoning in rural areas.
Food fraud cases have been increasing in the State. Last year, around 610 samples of various food products were tested and of them as many as 42 were found to be of substandard quality, 13 misbranded and 12 categorised as unsafe. Adulteration has been detected in even reputed brands.
The State Public Health Laboratory, the only food testing facility in the State, also serves to four other states of the Northeast.
Centre directs food safety commissioners of all states to take strict action against food adulteration
Centre has directed the food safety commissioners of all the states to take strict action against those involved in food adulteration.
Talking to reporters at a function to commemorate World food day in New Delhi today, Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey asked the concerned officials to remain vigilant against any kind of adulteration during this festive season. However, he also cautioned them not to unnecessarily harass sweet shop owners.
On the occasion, the Minister also launched a mobile app IFRA (Indian Food Recovery Alliance) to prevent food wastage. The app is created by Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) to manage surplus food recovery and stop food waste in the country.
It also creates a network of food recovery agencies and bring together donating bodies, beneficiaries and volunteers. Mr Choubey said, there is a need to raise awareness about the food loss and waste amongst citizens and bring about behavioral change to prevent food waste at home, school or at workplace.
Food Safety Licence must for hotels, restaurants
District Food Safety Officer Y Panduranga Rao said that food safety licence was must for every restaurant and hotels per rules. He said that inspection of food items in hotels and restaurants comes under the purview of food safety department and added that stern action would be taken against the owners that fail to get the food safety licence.
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