ரூ.1.50 லட்சம் மதிப்புள்ள காலாவதி பொருட்கள் பறிமுதல்

தஞ்சை பகுதியில் ரூ.1.50 லட்சம் மதிப்புள்ள காலாவதிபொருட்களை உணவு பாதுகாப்பு அதிகாரிகள் பறிமுதல் செய்தனர்.தஞ்சை பகுதியில் உள்ள கடைகள், உணவகங்கள், மளிகை கடைகள், பழக்கடைகள், குளிர்பான கடைகளில்  மாவட்ட உணவு பாதுகாப்பு மற்றும் மருந்து நிர்வாகத்துறை உணவு பாதுகாப்பு பிரிவு மாவட்ட நியமன அலுவலர் டாக்டர்.ரமேஷ்பாபு தலைமையில் அதிரடி ஆய்வு செய்யப்பட்டது. தஞ்சை, திருக்காட்டுப்பள்ளி, பூதலூர் மற்றும் சுற்று பகுதிகளில் உணவு பாதுகாப்பு அலுவலர்கள் ரெங்கநாதன்,  ராஜ்குமார், குமார், வடிவேல், கார்த்திக், சந்திரமோகன், ராமநாதன், மகேஷ்,  கோபாலகிருஷ்ணன், கௌதமன், விஜயகுமார், கிருஷ்ணமூர்த்தி, மகாதேவன், உமாகேசன்  ஆகியோர் அடங்கிய குழுவினர் அதிரடி சோதனை நடத்தினர்.
இதில் தயாரிப்பு  தேதி, காலாவதி தேதி குறிப்பிடப்படாத 20 லிட்டர் தண்ணீர் கேன்கள், தடை  செய்யப்பட்ட குட்கா, பான்மசாலா, காலாவதியான குளிர்பானங்கள், கலப்பட  டீத்தூள் பறிமுதல் செய்யப்பட்டு முறையாக மாநகராட்சி குப்பை கிடங்கில்  கொட்டி அழிக்கப்பட்டது. அழிக்கப்பட்ட பொருட்களின் மதிப்பு ரூ.1.50  லட்சமாகும்.இதுகுறித்து மாவட்ட நியமன அலுவலர் டாக்டர் ரமேஷ்பாபு  கூறும்போது, உணவு வணிகர்கள், விற்பனையாளர்கள் விற்பனை செய்யப்படும் உணவு  பொருள்களை சுகாதார முறையில் பராமரிக்க வேண்டும். பேக்கிங் செய்யப்பட்ட உணவு  பொருள்கள் பயன்பாட்டு காலம் அடங்கிய தகவல்களை தெளிவாக அச்சிடப்பட்ட  பொருட்களை வியாபாரம் செய்ய வேண்டும் என்றார். மேலும் கோடைக்காலம் என்பதால்  பொதுமக்கள் குடிநீர், குளிர்பானங்கள், உணவு பொருள்கள் வாங்கும்போது  தயாரிப்பு தேதி மற்றும் காலாவதியாகும் தேதியை பார்த்து வாங்கி பயன்படுத்த  வேண்டும் என்றார்.

GOVT FREE TO CONDUCT INQUIRY AGAINST FOOD ANALYST: HC

 

Clubbing petition by Food Analyst Kashmir Hamidullah Dar challenging strictures passed by Judicial Magistrate Budgam, the High Court asked its Registry to club the petition with PIL against the food adulteration that the court is already hearing.

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Friday held that the government is free to conduct inquiry against Food Analyst Kashmir that has been initiated against him following the directions of a Budgam court in Food Adulteration case.

Clubbing petition by Food Analyst Kashmir Hamidullah Dar challenging strictures passed by Judicial Magistrate Budgam, the High Court asked its Registry to club the petition with PIL against the food adulteration that the court is already hearing.

“Registry shall take steps for listing the matter along with the PIL after seeking orders from the Chief Justice. Till listing of the matter along with the PIL, respondents are free to conduct inquiry against the petitioner already initiated,” a bench of Justice Ali Muhammad Magrey said in its order.

Court of Judicial Magistrate Budgam imposed Rs 9 lakh penalty on a dairy company– M/s Khyber Agro Farms Pvt Ltd, Lethpora Pampore– and sentenced its in-charge operation, Muhammad Shafi Ganie to six months imprisonment under sections– 51 (sub standard), 52 (misbrand) and 59 (unsafe food) of the Food Safety and Standard Act 2006 after laboratory tests found presence of detergent in its toned milk samples.

Expressing its displeasure over his conduct, the court directed to remove Food Analyst Hamidullah Dar from the present assignment saying process should be initiated against him to declare him deadwood.

“Let displeasure of the court be conveyed and reflected in his serve records as this court lacks trust in him and justice has been all time casualty at his hands,” it said.

“Person like Hamidullah Dar is more dangerous than a fatal disease like cancer for the entire nation and incapacity and compromise with the nature of job like Food analyst Kashmir cannot be accepted by any standards of expectations where lives of the citizens are involved” the court observed.

The Sessions Court Budgam, subsequently, stayed the judgment

In a Plea, Dar has approached now High court seeking directions for expunging the strictures made against him by the court of Judicial Magistrate Budgam and against his inquiry initiated by the government in compliance of court directions.

Additional Advocate General M I Dar while questioning the maintainability of the petition told the court that the order under challenge is appealable before court of Sessions Judge Budgam. He said the accused has already preferred an appeal before the said Sessions Court and the Judgment of trial court has been stayed.

He also submitted that a division bench of High court is seized of the matter related to adulterated food in the PIL no 3 /2016 which, he pleaded, has direct bearing on the issue involved in the present petition.

“Notwithstanding the observations of the judicial magistrate in the judgment, otherwise also the government is not powerless to deal with the petitioner for his alleged involvement in allowing the people to consume adulterated food items,” he pleaded.

Referring to Supreme Court Judgment, Counsel for petitioner, Altaf A Haqani, pleaded that in terms of Article 226 of the Constitution of India and under Section 561-A of CrPC, the petition is maintainable.

After hearing the parties the court directed its Registry shall take steps for listing the matter along with the PIL (03/2016) after seeking orders from the Chief Justice. “Till listing of the matter along with the PIL, respondents are free to conduct inquiry against the petitioner already initiated,” the court said.

Box

“Person like Hamidullah Dar is more dangerous than a fatal disease like cancer for the entire nation and incapacity and compromise with the nature of job like Food analyst Kashmir cannot be accepted by any standards of expectations where lives of the citizens are involved,” the court observed.

Absence of lab facilities driving State exim cargo to Chennai

 

The State has a long way to go to leverage the advantage of having the second longest coastline in the country. Even after two years, facilities required by exporters have not been created and coupled with this, imposition of taxes on imports has become a major obstacle to the growth process.

Andhra Pradesh is a major importer of pulses and due to the five per cent VAT levied in the State has resulted in importers routing pulses from Myanmar through Chennai and selling it in the State. The ports in the State are standing to lose out traffic of at least 1,000 containers per month during peak season.

Memorandum

Chillies from Guntur are still routed through Chennai as the State does not have an office and laboratory of the Spices Board to test samples and certify the product as fit for human consumption, officials of the Visakhapatnam Port Trust submitted in a memorandum to Visakhapatnam MP K. Haribabu.

The issue was raised with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu during the recently concluded Maritime India Summit in Mumbai, Visakhapatnam Port Trust Chairman M.T. Krishna Babu told the MP and urged him to follow it up with Centre for speedy resolution.

Statutory bodies

Further, the State needs statutory bodies like the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and the Port Health Officer in Visakhapatnam to certify that the imported fruits are in order without any chemicals that are harmful for human consumption.

There is no office of Assistant Drug Controller in the State because of which all the pharmaceutical imports are being routed through Chennai. The ADC certifies the specific drugs that are allowed to be imported or exported.

Post bifurcation, the State has tremendous opportunity for development utilising its resources to the maximum, the BJP State president said at the ceremony to flag off the container cargo ship SSL Visakhapatnam, after its maiden call at the Visakhapatnam Port on Thursday.

State needs statutory bodies like the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and the Port Health Officer in Visakhapatnam to certify that the imported fruits are in order without any chemicals that are harmful for human consumption

‘Kummatikka’ juice will give Mammookka diarrhoea

Kochi: The heat may have left you with no choice. But if you value your health, stay away from roadside vendors and cool bars even if you are desperate for a cool drink.

A random sampling of five popular fresh juices and drinks in and around Kochi, done by the Times of India (TOI), found that the microbial content in them were very high, as much as by several thousand times above permissible levels.

TOI team took samples of non-packaged `fresh’ cool drinks and juices from MG Road, KSRTC Boat Jetty , Hospital Road, Marine Drive and High Court Junction, covering the area on a hot summer day , last week.

The samples included iced juices of pineapple, watermelon, orange, `kulukki sarbath’ and `sambharam’ (butter milk). The samples were taken in sterilized bottles in an hour to a private National Accredi tation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories-certified (NABL) laboratory in the city.

They were tested for microbial count, total coliform bacteria and formalin, usually found in ice. The laboratory was also asked to test them in rela tion with safe drinking water parameters and check for unusual difference that could be considered dangerous for human consumption.

The results showed that `kulukki sarbath’ had 8,700 microbes in one ml against the limit of `less than 50′, which is the permissible limit. In the case of pineapple juice, this was 9,300ml, watermelon 7,500 ml, with orange juice showing the highest level at 9,800ml.The total coliform bacteria per ml was over 1,200 in case of all samples except `sambharam’, which had around 990. The absence of `formalin’ in samples was a big surprise as all of them were iced drinks.The presence of formalin, used to preserve fish, in ice used by unscrupulous cool bars had led to annual raids by the food safety department.

According to food safety of ficials, this could be because of the awareness and hygiene campaign carried out by them at ice manufacturing units."We had campaigned hard to ensure strict hygiene in ice factories," said K V Shibu, assistant commissioner of food safety, Ernakulam. However, he added that the situation was not under control. "There are small vendors who go around in bicycles selling ice. These are sometimes used to preserve fish. That’s probably why you find e-coli in juices," he said.

While there are no cases against ice manufacturers, food safety officials said that they were planning to inspect and monitor the entire sale of ice.

The department has also initiated a drive to collect samples of juices and other soft drinks from several areas in the city and send them for testing.

"Maximum samples will be collected in the next two days.We’ll continue the drive till the end of this month. We will proceed against all violators," Shibu said.

"In tests done on packaged drinking water, the department had found the presence of e.coli at a very high level. A criminal case was registered against a popular drinking water supplier," he said.

An `invitation’ for Hepatitis A, rotavirus

Kochi: What does the presence of microbes and e-coli in the juice mean to your health?

"This can happen if people making and serving the drinks have not bothered about hygiene. If they are suffering or recovering from typhoid, cholera or jaundice, then it could be dangerous for those consuming the drink," said senior gastroenterologist and IMA Cochin secretary Dr Rajeev Jayadevan.

Microbes in drinks could lead to Hepatitis A or being infected by rotavirus. "You could end up with severe diarrhoea. Jaundice is also a major threat. Some people have severe abdominal pain which resemble an appendicitis attack," he said.

Lack of hygiene, failure in washing fruits properly and the dumping of faecal matter into waterbodies are the major reasons for the presence of microbes and e-coli in juices tested by TOI.

Dr Rajeev opined that people should drink water when they were thirsty instead of juices. "I would advise people to eat fruits which is much safer for the stomach and general health."