SCHOOL CAFETERIAS IN CHINA- FOOD SAFETY OVERHAULING

It is interesting to read a recent news item which reported the action of Chinese food safety authorities in overhauling the catering facilities in schools across the country to improve the safety standards there with a view to protect the health of children who depend on them for their meals. The report opens a window to the prevailing situations that exist in Chinese educational institutions, especially in the lower level schools and it is revealing that in schools cafeteria facilities are provided to the students. In contrast the schools in India do not provide such facilities with most kids attracted towards street hawkers who sell unhygienic foods jeopardizing their health. Only recently the Supreme Court in India passed strictures against the government regarding the unhealthy foods to which kids are exposed with the government filing a weak reply which was an example of obfuscation. Many government schools in India depend on free foods distributed under the Applied Nutrition Program or midday meal project under the illusion that children attend the school more regularly. It will be interesting to learn more about the Chinese system though the report mentioned above gives one the impression that it is similar to the American system where kids are supplied subsidized foods through regular canteens. Here is a take on this interesting news. 

"A total of 600 school cafeterias have been given administrative penalties during China's latest inspection tour of such facilities, and more than 20,000 have been ordered to eliminate potential food safety hazards, according to a food watchdog statement released on Friday. Although the punishments were not specified, Chinese administrative penalties usually involve fines and revocations of licenses. As of the end of March, 130,000 school cafeterias across China had been overhauled during a joint inspection launched by the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) and the Ministry of Education, according to the SFDA statement. The two organs will conduct a new wave of inspections from May to the end of June, in a bid to prevent food poisoning in the warmer months and examine the implementation of the government order on ensuring food safety. A series of food poisoning cases have been reported by schools in the past month, raising fears among Chinese students and parents.Schools are required to increase students' awareness of food safety, and relevant departments are urged to strict supervision, the statement said". 

In a way, one has to admire the Chinese government for populistic measures like the above though these are at the expense of limiting the personal freedom of the citizens for the sake of national development. The intensified checking and hauling up of institutions for safety violations also speak well of the values attached to the upbringing of children, who are future citizens of the country. While the present attempt is mainly focused on safety violations, what  needs to be done further is to streamline the nutritional and health value of foods offered in school cafeterias across the country. It may be recalled that America is going through a phase where more restrictions are being placed regarding what type of foods should be available in school premises weeding out sugary and fatty foods with low nutrient density, a model that can be adapted in other countries.  

V.H.POTTY
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SET BACK FOR INDIAN ETHNIC FOODS-CANADIAN EPISODE

Graduating from a small business into the big league is not an easy task and no lesson seems to have been learned by those aspiring to be big about the increased responsibility that comes along. The recent set back suffered by one of the ethnic food manufacturers in India being hauled up for safety violations in Canada must provide a warning about the dangers in lowering the guard by the manufacturers in conforming to the food laws of the country where their products are marketed. This particular case is relatively minor as the manufacturer was guilty of using an allergic chemical ingredient without declaring its presence on the label but it still can cause lot of damage to the image of the brand as well as that of the country.

"In what could be considered a setback to the Rs 500-crore Haldiram's Food International Limited, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency(CFIA) has warned its country's citizens against consuming the city-based group's petha sweet as the product contained sulphites, which are sulphur-containing compounds used as additives to preserve food and beverages, but which, in rare cases, can also lead to life-threatening reactions in allergic or sensitive persons. According to sources, the Toronto-based importer of Haldiram's Petha - Quality Natural Food - has voluntarily recalled the product from the markets. The importer has also cautioned Canadian citizens, especially those suffering from allergies, not to consume the sweet as it may lead to life-threatening reaction. This sweet, believed to have originated from Agra and sold across the world including Canada, contains sulphites as one of the ingredients whose quantity has not been declared on the packaging. Director of Haldiram's group on Nagpur Sushil Agrawal admitted that they had received a message to this effect from their Canada-based dealer and they would soon be initializing steps to make necessary changes. The company has recalled about 20 cartons costing about $300 (Rs 15,000). "It's happening with us for the first time but it's not a serious matter. They just wanted to have percentage of Sulphite contents printed on the packets. We anyhow mention use of Sulphite as one of the ingredients but haven't specified its percentage in parts per million (PPM). Now, we will paste new stickers having mention of Sulphite percentage in PPM on the packets," he clarified".

Petha, generally made from ash gourd traditionally in some regions of Uttar Pradesh in India by micro enterprises or home based small units, many of which lack adequate infrastructure for maintaining uniform quality and ensuring consistent safety assurance. It is for the marketing organizations who undertake the responsibility of exporting these products to provide at least the necessary technical inputs to generate confidence amongst the buyers. India food industry is known to ignore the importance of technical personnel in quality and safety assurance, often employing cheap and under qualified workers to man their operations. The consequences of such neglect, what ever be the reason, can be catastrophic in the long run and the "writing on the wall" is clear-"change for the good or perish"!

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

RESTAURANT FOODS AND SAFETY-IRELAND SHOWS THE WAY

While safety of foods from the organized processing industry receives critical attention, the restaurant sector usually gets away with hardly any monitoring system or deterrent mode working in many developing countries including India. The mere logistics of putting in place an effective safety enforcement regime is nightmarish when it is realized that majority of catering players are in the unorganized sector with a moribund vigilance system under the local administration with neither adequate personnel nor the much needed critical laboratory infrastructure. The recent announcement by the FSSAI that hotels in New Delhi would be graded for the guidance of tourists expected to converge in the metropolis during the forth coming Commonwealth Games, is supposed to project a good impression about the country. How far its intention will be translated into ground reality remains to be seen. Contrast this "impotency" with the rigorous action taken against safety violations in a country like Ireland which can be discerned from the following report.

"The FSAI today announced that it served four closure orders and four prohibition orders on food businesses for breaches of food-safety legislation during April. A prohibition order is a temporary order that can be applied if a business is selling or storing food not fit for human consumption. A closure order meanwhile means that a business represents a very real risk to public health in respect to food safety. It cannot be lifted until action required by safety officers is taken to correct the risk. Closure orders were served on:

• Mother India restaurant, The Square, Roscommon
• Kitchen of The Central Bar, Market Square, Roscommon
• 'Honeybear' Ice cream van, Reg No. W471EOB, Shore Front, Buncrana, Donegal
• Roscommon Golf Club Restaurant, Golf Links Road, Roscommon

Prohibition orders were served on:

• Iskon Ireland Ltd, trading as Govinda's, 4 Aungier St., Dublin 2
• Iskon Ireland Ltd, trading as Govinda's restaurant, 18 Merrion Row, Dublin 2
• Iskon Ireland Ltd, trading as Govindas, 83 Middle Abbey Street, Dublin 1
• Real Brasil grocery, Unit 2, Castle Street, Roscommon

A ROSCOMMON golf-club restaurant, three restaurants run by the Hare Krishna movement and the luxury Harvey's Point Hotel in Co Donegal feature in the latest list of food safety breaches published by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI). The owner of the four-star Harvey's Point Hotel, Marc Gysling, was fined €500 and ordered to pay costs of almost €1,200 after being convicted of food hygiene breaches in Donegal District Court last month. The hotel kitchen failed to reach required standards when visited by inspectors on several occasions last year, the court heard. The hotel said an outside contractor had been hired to set a hygiene standard but this had not been completely effective".

Can Indian consumers expect a transformation from the present decadent system to a more effective enforcement regime in the foreseeable future? Conceded that India is a big country and it requires enormous resources to mount a vigilance system that can do a reasonably good job in safety monitoring but more than any thing else, there has to be a will, commitment and dedication on the part of agencies vested with authority to carry out this task. It is unlikely that such human quality can be found amongst the people who are "managing" the food safety portfolio now.

V.H.POTTY

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