Food safety vigilance-Picking samples itself is news!

India is supposed to have a very "strong" "food safety act" as per the claims of the government and it is under this act that a top heavy Authority called FSSAI was set up. The obvious purpose of creating this bureaucratic organization is to keep "vigilance" over the food materials made and marketed across the country. Its power has further been increased by including liquor also among the basket of food products coming under its purview! What does "vigilance" mean? According to dictionary definition it is the "state of keeping careful watch for possible dangers or difficulties" and therefore FSSAI is supposed to be keeping an eye over thousands of products made in the country to ensure their quality and safety! Is this organization is up to the responsibility cast on it or it is more interested on photo-op actions meaning nothing to the harassed citizens of the country. Reading the following PR oriented report from this Authority"s Pune office what type of impression one can derive? Read it and decide for yourself!

"The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials collected samples of prepared food items and liquor from various hotels in Pune on Wednesday to assess the quality of food and liquor served in the city for New Year celebrations. "We asked our 20 food safety officials to each draw at least two samples of prepared food items and liquor from various hotels and restaurants in Pune on December 31. Around 40 samples were collected till late midnight which will be tested to check whether they conform to all parameters of safety and quality at Public Health Laboratory," said Shashikant Kekare, joint commissioner (food), FDA, Pune.  A week back, the food safety officers also drew six samples of liquor and sent the samples to laboratory for tests. "The reports are awaited. The aim is to ensure that the liquor sold in Pune conforms to specified quality and standard norms," Kekare said.  The samples of foreign liquor, Indian Made Foreign Liquor and country liquor were subjected to quality tests during a six-day drive. "The drive was primarily aimed at ensuring that all kinds of alcoholic beverages sold in Pune are not adulterated as sale of alcohol usually increases during this time of the year," he said. Last year's samples of alcoholic beverages that were collected were found conforming to the quality standards. The samples were tested at the state-run public health laboratory, he added. There is a perceptible rise in the sale of country liquor in city's slums and rural parts during the New Year celebrations. Hence, our officers had also drawn samples from country liquor outlets as well, Kekare said. The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, which came into effect on August 5, 2011, looks at various aspects of alcohol adulteration and divides them into various segments like substance or quality demanded, extraneous but harmless matter, misbranded items and unsafe for consumption.  "Since alcohol has now been classified as food, samples will be subjected to quality tests to ensure that the liquor meets FDA standards. We have to ensure that the quality is genuine and it is free of solvents that are injurious to health," said Shivkumar Kodgire, assistant commissioner (food), FDA, Pune." 

It talks about a "six day drive" to "collect" samples and "sending' them for testing! Does this mean that out of 365 days in an year only such special drives are taken up, rest of the year being "holidays" for the officials? Is this their concept of market vigilance? Since every drive in the country taken up by government agencies is an organized "event' lot of advanced publicity must have been given through the media and what one can expect from them? Are the makers of unsafe foods going to oblige the Authority by being a "sitting duck", waiting for the officials to come and nab them? In stead of doing their work silently, efficiently and honestly, they give wide publicity about their campaign, call the media to boast about picking samples for sending to test laboratories, a ridiculous action to seek publicity. It was rather curious that the food safety officials are more concerned about safety of liquor products than common foods which are adulterated widely with serious health consequences! Does this report instill any confidence in the minds of a layman regarding the intentions of the government vis-a-vis safety of foods consumed by him three times a day every day in the year? Sad and tragic are the only two words to express after reading the above report! As some one said recently, God only can save the citizens of this country from the food fraudsters lurking around ever ready to make a fast buck through criminal and devious means by exploiting the weak kneed and indifferent response from the government to their nefarious activities!

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

Looking for virgin olive oil? Here is a tool for easy testing

Olive oil is a much valued "healthy" vegetable oil in great demand through out the world. Whether it is for its health benefits or for its characteristic flavor olive oil is widely prefered as compared to other liquid oils. All edible oils are made of a mixture of fatty acids and glycerol and the ultimate fluidity will depend on the extent of unsaturated fatty acids present in a given oil. As a thumb rule more fluid an oil is, higher can be contents of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). Both MUFA and PUFA are highly regarded for their influence on heart health and other benefits for human beings. Good things some time come with a rider and olive oil is no exception. Because of unsaturated fatty acids, its shelf life is some what restricted as it gets rancid due to oxidation at ambient conditions. Also it attracts hordes of fraudsters to tamper with it by mixing with cheap oils. Incidentally olive oil is the costliest edible oil, the prices being 100-500% more than other vegetable oils. Extra virgin olive oil is a much coveted product made under mild processing conditions so that the rancidity level is practically undetectable and it fetches higher price compared to other grades of olive oils. Recent announcement that a simple device has been designed to confirm whether samples of olive oil are really virgin is being welcomed by the organized industry which has a stake in protecting the USP of virgin olive oil. Here is a take on this new development.

"What does rancid olive oil look like, chemically speaking, and how do you build a device that can quickly, easily and inexpensively test for those signature chemical compounds? That was the daunting task facing the six iGEM team members, the best and brightest of the hundreds who applied to be part of the 2014 UC Davis team. "It's extremely complicated," said Selina Wang, research director for the UC Davis Olive Center and one of four advisers to the 2014 iGEM team. "The chemical methods we have available now are either too crude and don't correlate with sensory traits, or are too time-consuming and require expensive instruments. The students' goal was to generate an affordable device to detect a comprehensive profile of signature rancidity compounds that match what we smell." They're really close. Their electrochemical biosensor — shaped liked an oversized thermometer — comes complete with the computer hardware and software necessary to read rancidity levels in a single drop of oil. "It's not perfect, but we're getting there," said Aaron Cohen, a junior majoring in biomedical engineering. Their biosensor will be best suited for producers, buyers and retailers because it's probably too complicated in its current form to easily test olive oil quality at home. But Wang sees a day when a future generation of this technology could be built into every bottle of extra-virgin olive oil to guarantee freshness. "That way, consumers can see at a glance whether their olive oil is starting to turn rancid," Wang said. In the meantime, people throughout the olive oil industry, here and abroad, could benefit from the new biosensor, which the team predicts will retail for about $125. "I think their project has great potential," said David Garci-Aguirre, production manager at Corto Olive Co. in Lodi. "A biosensor that provides an easy, affordable way to help ensure the quality of our olive oil could prove an incredibly useful tool for us, for retailers and especially for consumers. I see this kind of innovation really helping to get good oils into the hands of those who are trying to buy good oils."

The claim by the scholars who worked on this device needs to be independently verified because many a time scholarly research runs into problems when commercially applied.  As a biosensor is used for measuring rancidity in the oil and subsequent computation requiring electronic computing system, the claim that it could be useful to consumers may be some what far fetched and rightly the innovators admit about this limitation. It is good that they are looking further to develop a thermometer sized device amenable for use by consumers is encouraging. Rancidity is usually measured by parameters like peroxide values and other chemical paradigms which can give an approximate indication of the quality of the product but requires laboratory facilities to carry them out. Sensory tests also can differentiate between virgin olive oil and other grades but these tests are some what subjective requiring highly trained taste panelists. The above efforts in evolving a new simple and inexpensive tool for confirming the grade of olive oil are timely and relevant.

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

THE NEW CHOLESTEROL PHOBIA-WHY THIS AGRESSIVENESS?

The multi billion dollar Statin industry must be elated by the latest recommendations from an expert panel in the US regarding compulsory screening of children for high triglycerides and cholesterol in their blood to detect early signals for development of obesity.  It is true that in the US the single most critical health issue today is the wide scale prevalence of obesity with one third of the population obese and another one third over weight based on the yardstick of Body Mass Index ( BMI). If Statin industry has reached where it is now generating billions of dollars of business, thanks are due to the aggressive program of lipid profiling of the adult population pursued as an annual health check up effort. The present attempt to expand the lipid screening to young kids is a logical extension of the efforts of the industry to ramp up its financial health at the expense of the citizen! The fact that some of the members of the medical panel that made the above recommendations have had financial connection with drug industry raises the needle of suspicion regarding the intent of this exercise. Here is an analysis of this latest development vis-a-vis cholesterol screening in the US.    

"Moreover, the recommendations are based on expert opinion, rather than solid evidence, the researchers said, which is especially problematic since the guidelines' authors disclosed extensive potential conflicts of interest. The guidelines were written by a panel assembled by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute ( NHLBI) and published in Pediatrics, in November 2011. They also were endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The guidelines call for universal screening of all 9 to 11-year-old children with a non-fasting lipid panel, and targeted screening of 30 to 40 percent of 2 to 8-year-old and 12 to 16-year old children with two fasting lipid profiles. Previous recommendations called only for children considered at high risk of elevated levels to be screened with a simple non-fasting total cholesterol test. The call for a dramatic increase in lipid screening has the potential to transform millions of healthy children into patients labeled with so-called dyslipidemia, or bad lipid levels in the blood, according to the commentary by Thomas Newman, MD, MPH, Mark Pletcher, MD, MPH and Stephen Hulley, MD, MPH, of the UCSF Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and e-published on July 23 in Pediatrics. "The panel made no attempt to estimate the magnitude of the health benefits or harms of attaching this diagnosis at this young age," said Newman. "They acknowledged that costs are important, but then went ahead and made their recommendations without estimating what the cost would be. And it could be billions of dollars." Some of the push to do more screening comes from concern about the obesity epidemic in U.S. children. But this concern should not lead to more laboratory testing, said Newman. "You don't need a blood test to tell who needs to lose weight. And recommending a healthier diet and exercise is something doctors can do for everybody, not just overweight kids," he said. The requirement of two fasting lipid panels in 30 to 40 percent of all 2 to 8-year olds and 12 to 16 -year- olds represents a particular burden to families, he said."

Cholesterol is considered a villain in most heart disease and build up of this chemical in the arteries leading to atherosclerosis is considered a direct consequence of reckless eating habits evolved in wealthy countries like the US. Vast agriculture subsidies and skewed government food policies have spawned a whole generation of cheap but highly unhealthy foods to which the citizens have ready access while healthy foods like fluid milk and fruits and vegetables are priced out of the reach of the common man. Over eating of meat and related products rich in cholesterol practically every day makes the cholesterol induced "crisis" a formidable one to manage. Recent attempts by the government, though belatedly and half-heartedly to make one day a weak meat free was sabotaged by the meat industry fearing a slide down of its fortunes. The obsession with pre-empting possible diseases during early childhood which is characteristic of the American system seems to have driven the latest proposal of lipid screening for children. But the over weight does not develop over night and those with a tendency with increased BMI only need to be tested sparing most kids the trauma of lipid profiling process unnecessarily. One can only hope that better sense will prevail with the US government eventually after considering the pros and cons of implementing the latest recommendations.

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

DECLINING FOOD SAFETY-ADULTERATION ON THE INCREASE

India is a vast country and its management is highly complex requiring multifaceted talents in different fields. In the food area there is a mix of organized and informal industrial sectors manufacturing thousands of products with value addition varying from 25% to 2500%. Besides there are more than 8 million retailers peddling foods- raw, semi processed as well as fully processed, in loose and packed formats. Governments at the state and center have a constitutional responsibility to safeguard the interests of the citizens by preventing sale of spurious, adulterated, unsafe and sub-standard quality foods. But ever since independence, during the last 6 decades people's representatives have failed miserably in restraining unsocial criminals who indulge in rampant food adulteration to make illegal profits. Here is the case of Ahmedabad Muncipal Corpration which has recently enumerated the difficulties it is facing in keeping ahead of the food adulterators

"Samples of maida, cow milk, khoya, ghee, curd, chilly powder, jam and pulses, among others failed to meet the stipulated standards. According to official figures available, the percentage of food adulterants has increased from 11 to 15 per cent in last 10 years. Recently, AMC recovered tons of spurious food items in the city. The existing public health laboratory functioning from a makeshift space at NHL Medical College in VS Hospital compound has the capacity to test an average of 15 to 20 samples. It also takes at least two to three days for the results to be out. However, AMC city limits have grown from the earlier 196 sq m to 466 sq m. Within these limits, there are thousands of food establishments which need to be monitored regularly and inspected for their quality of food".

The above situation applies to hundreds of other bodies also across the country. How can the policy makers expect to monitor the quality of food in the market with practically no worthwhile laboratory facilities or experienced personnel available. Most of the existing facilities can hardly handle about 10-20 samples a day while the population can be in the range of 1 to 100 lakh! No wonder adulterators have a field day in this country riding high on the procrastination and inaction by the country's politicians and bureaucrats who do not seem to have neither time nor inclination to attend to the woes of the citizens.

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