BIS Vs FSSAI-Why this dichotomy?

When Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) was created with great fanfare, it was expected that food industry in India could deal with one single government agency from licensing to product monitoring. It is another matter that what the industry got was a thoroughly bureaucratized top heavy obese organization with no technical expertise to carry out the awesome task of protecting the citizens from fraudulent practices by some of the unscrupulous segment of the food processing industry which is bent on making a fast buck ignoring the health perils posed by their sub-standard and unsafe products. Honest industry players who want to play strictly by the rule books are unnecessarily harassed as seen recently by the brutal action to ban a particular brand of noodles based on unreliable and questionable test results. To add to the burden posed by FSSAI, another irritant has been introduced by way of bringing another government agency viz Bureau of Indian Standards "BIS"  to approve tin plate quality. Here is a take on this latest development against which the industry is protesting.    

"The Bureau of Indian Standards' (BIS) quality control order on tin plates issued in April will affect India's metal packaging industry of around Rs 5,000 crore. The Draft Steel Quality Control orer includes 'Cold Reduced Electrolytic Tinplate', an import component used in packing baby food, milk power, mango pulp, coffee among other edible and non edible items. Industry body Metal Container Manufacturers Association (MCMA) feels that the order, which will come into force by next month, needs to be reviewed as it will impact the metal packaging industry, which employs over a lakh people. According to MCMA President Sanjay Bhatia tin can is an "industrial product and not an item of mass consumption". Industry consumes around 550,000 tonnes of tin mill products (tinplate/tinfree steel etc), of which about 60 per cent is prime and 40 per cent non-prime. Domestic availability is about 325,000 tonnes and the balance is imported from different countries such as Japan, Korea, Brazil, Europe, USA, China, Venezuela, etc. "The firms in these countries follow rigorous global quality control orders and since we do not import large quantities they will not take pains to get BIS certification, which will impact us as we will not get good material at competitive rates," Bhatia told PTI. Prime material is mainly required for edible products like processed food, fruits and vegetables, dairy products, edible oil etc while non-prime (secondaries arising out of Prime) are required for non-edible products such as in packing of paints, industrial oils among others. "The order brings a non-tariff barrier in order to protect the domestic producers, but the production in the country is not sufficient enough to meet the demand of the industry both in terms of volume as well as grades," he countered. In certain applications industry requires continuous annealed material, high precision shearing in terms of squareness for products like battery jackets, scroll tinplate sheets which the domestic producer is not in a position to supply, he said. "We have approached the Prime Minister's Office, Steel Ministry, Commerce Ministry, Ministry of Medium and Small Enterprises with our demand. A similar order had come in 2007-08 and the government had taken it back. We are hopeful that something can happen this time as well," he added. The order will also reduce the competitive strength of metal packaging industry as it is likely to result in increase in cost of raw material involved in BIS marking fees and other related expenses as compared to other packaging material like plastic, paper, glass, Bhatia said."

It is unfortunate that bureaucracy in the country is trying again to overlord the manufacturing sector putting such types of hurdles reminding one of the old days of "inspector raj". Sympathize with poor Prime Minister who is talking day in and day out about strengthening the industry by removing impediments so that his "Make in India"  dream takes off in a big way. Probably he has not reckoned with the vice-like grip of bureaucracy in this country which does not see any thing beyond its self interest-that is wielding power without accountability. Why should there be any standards set by BIS when tha responsibility of food standards management is vested with FSSAI? Industry has a case when they are protesting against such arbitrary policy decisions affecting their functioning in a serious way. It is not that BIS is inferior to FSSAI as both organizations are epitome of inefficiency and unreliability when it comes to protecting the consumer. Ultimately industry has to blame itself for its subservient attitude to babus in the government by their behavior bordering on sycophancy! It must stand up with no fear or favor from the government for causes which are right and sensible.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

Cooking oil in Taiwan-A health hazard rather than a food adjunct?

"Food frauds do not recognize any borders and fraudsters are not confined to any particular country. Whether it in the US, China, India or any other country, food adulteration and imitating reputed  food products, especially high value ones or high volume ones are fairly widespread though the number of cases may vary from country to country. One vital difference that is noticed in detecting and punishing fraudsters is that a country like the US has a good documentation system that gives accurate picture about such cases, in many other countries lax enforcement systems and undependable data make it very difficult to get any meaningful idea about the extent of frauds. Latest to emerge vis-a-vis food scandal is the widespread detection of cooking oil adulteration reported from Taiwan, a country with high reputation for its technological and economic development. Here is a take on this criminal practice in that country indulged in by a section of the organized food industry there. 

The series of incidents first came to light on 4 September 2014, when it was discovered that tainted cooking oil was being produced by Kaohsiung-based company Chang Guann Co. and branded as Chuan Tung Fragrant Lard Oil .The company was found to have blended cooking oil with recycled oil, grease and leather cleaner. The recycled oil was processed by an unlicensed factory in Pingtung County owned by Kuo Lieh-cheng, who allegedly purchased the oil from waste recycler Hu Hsin-te, whose factory is named Shun Te Enterprises, located in the Daliao District of Kaohsiung. Chang Guann purchased up to 243 tonnes of recycled waste oil disguised as lard from the Pingtung factory, starting in February 2014. The company then allegedly refined the waste oil before mixing it with processed lard and selling the tainted product to its distributors. The recycled waste oil was collected from restaurants, and included discarded animal parts, fat and skin. The President of Chang Guann Co. apologized to the public on 4 September 2014. He emphasized that his company was not aware and did not intentionally buy the tainted oil, and that the oil the company purchased from the illegal Pingtung factory was not cheaper than oil from other oil suppliers. On 11 September, reports revealed that in 2014, Chang Guann had also imported 87.72 tonnes of lard oil falsely listed for human consumption from Hong Kong-based Globalway Corp Ltd. that were actually meant for animal use only. Since 2008, Chang Guann had imported 56 batches of lard oil weighing 2,385.1 tonnes from Hong Kong, about 300 tonnes of which were purchased from Globalway Corp between 2011 and 2014. The Taiwan Food Good Manufacturing Practice Development Association (TFGMPDA) reported that the cooking oil produced by Chang Guann has never been awarded GMP certification, although the TFGMPDA issued an apology saying that five food companies whose products have won GMP certification have used the tainted oil. Schools around Taiwan pulled all of the products containing the tainted oil from their school meals after 16 schools were discovered to be using the adulterated oil products. Chang Guann was found in violation of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation and fined NT$50 million.[3] Yeh Wen-hsiang, chairman of Chang Guann, was arrested for fraud for his role in the scandal. The FDA began indefinitely halting imports of edible lard oil from Hong Kong on 11 September. On 1 October, prosecutors revealed that after viewing lab results, Kuo Lieh-cheng admitted that oil he sold to Chang Guann Co. was mixed with corpse oil, gutter oil, grease and leather cleaner, and recycled oil. On 3 October the Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Wen-ta resigned in the aftermath of the scandal.2014 Taiwan food scandal."

One wonders whether Chinese food entrepreneurs have a special knack in devising ways and means of making money through food adulteration and imitation, many times such foods becoming serious health hazards. One may recall the episode in Communist China where innocent kids were killed by adulterated baby foods containing melamine, an industrial chemical with high toxicity. Of course severe punishments were meted out to at least some of the guilty perpetrators by the government in response to international cries and indignation. Why such things keep happening even in a country like Communist China where dictatorial government is known to mete out summary punishments including death sentence is a mystery. Such a situation tends to diminish the confidence of the citizens regarding the safety of foods they buy from the market place. Whether one likes it or not eternal vigilance by the government and the citizens alike is the only solution and no amount of investment is too high in creating reasonably efficient and ruthless enforcement infrastructure in all countries.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

                

"ORGANIC" BABY FOODS-WHY ADD "ISOLATED" CHEMICALS?

Consumers pay through their nose for organic foods under the impression that these foods do not contain any man made ingredients, every thing being natural. But the blatant manner in which infant foods containing nutrients isolated, probably from fish, were allowed to be marketed under organic food banner is scandalous. In their quest for increasing profits, food industry is accused of indulging in many unfair manufacturing practices often injurious to the consumer. After allowing these mislabeled products to be sold in the market for quite some time, the authorities are waking up to the reality and under the new administration in the US the practice has been banned.

"The Obama administration announced Tuesday that two synthetic additives will no longer be permitted in infant formula or baby foods certified as organic because the widely used ingredients have not received legal approval for use in organic products. The additives -- omega-3 fatty acid DHA and omega-6 fatty acid ARA -- are present in 90 percent of organic infant formulas and are marketed as promoting brain and eye development in ways that mimic breast milk. The Washington Post reported last July that U.S. Department of Agriculture employees had concluded three years earlier that the fatty acids violated federal standards and should be banned from products carrying the federal organic label. Their findings were overruled by a USDA program manager who had been heavily lobbied by the formula industry".

While inclusion of DHA and ARA in infant foods helps to boost their nutritive value, making it comparable to breast milk, what is objectionable is to brand them as organic. Extraction of DHA/ARA involves use of Hexane as the solvent and the final purified product will invariably contain traces of this carcinogenic chemical. Feeding infants with such products cannot be condoned under any circumstances and the belated ban deserves to be applauded.

V.H.POTTY

http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

GLOBAL FOOD NEEDS-CURRENT ESTIMATES FLAWED?

After the environment report of the UN was found to have inaccurate data, the the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had to eat its words and the very credibility of such agencies, supposed to be manned by eminent persons is being questioned by all those concerned with the fate of this globe under stress due to indiscriminate man-created pollution. Here comes another bloomer on world hunger projected by no less an authority than the FAO, according to some analysts knowledgeable on the subject. Probably there is some substance in the arguments by the UK group which contests the conclusion arrived by the FAO.

"A declaration that global food production needs to double to feed the world by the middle of this century provoked shock when it was announced by the UN food chief. It has since become a founding pillar of food policy, cited by leading British politicians and government scientists, farming leaders and some of the world's biggest agricultural companies. But the source of the now infamous statistic did not actually say that, claims a new report by the Soil Association, the UK's leading organic group.The study, entitled "The big fat lie about doubling food production", traced the original source of the doubling claim back to a report published by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation in 2006. However, using the FAO's own figures, the Soil Association says the forecast increase needed in production would be closer to 70% by 2050".

It will be tragic if such gross discrepancies are found in policy reports prepared by international servants serving the UN agencies, with enormous cost incurred for maintaining them. Whether such distortions are deliberate or accidental is immaterial because the ultimate adverse effect on mankind due to misreporting will be same. Probably UN agencies will have to be more diligent in selecting people with unimpeachable integrity while compiling policy reports with far reaching consequences.

V.H.POTTY

http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

'BOTULISUM' SCARE-BABY FOODS RECALL

'Botulism' is a serious consequence of consuming Cl. botulinum infected food in which
the bacteria excretes its toxin material. This toxin is more familiar to beauty parlors where 'botox' facial treatment is offered for removing wrinkles. During the hey days of canning industry Cl. bottulinum was a dreaded infection and there were few fatalities on account of this. With the processing conditions for elimination of this organism well established, especially the acidity and temperature requirement, bottulism seemed like a thing of the past. The baby food recall, as reported recently in the US, will revive the anxieties about cl.bottulinum again.

"The recall was undertaken as a precaution due to the risk of potential contamination with Clostridium botulinum, which can cause botulism, a serious and sometimes life-threatening condition. Consumers should not use these products, even if they appear to be normal, because of the possible health risk. Symptoms of botulism poisoning in humans include general weakness, dizziness,double-vision and trouble with speaking or swallowing. People experiencing these problems should seek immediate medical attention".

As long as the safe process conditions are followed, there should not be any serious apprehension regarding botulinum infection in modern day processing facilities with dependable instrumentation to ensure the adequacy of the process. As Cl.botulinum survives only under anaerobic condition, there are very few products that can be affected by this organism. With most of the industry adopting HACCP system for ensuring safety of processed foods, there should not be any undue concern on this account.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com