By the next fiscal, importers will find it difficult to dump poor quality wine in Indian market, as the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), Government of India is planning to create standards for wine industry based on global best practices, according to a Business Line report.

The standards will help the Indian wine industry create ‘Indian brands’ and reach new markets in Europe, Asia and North America.

Standards will codify grape varieties, alcohol content, fermentation processes, hygiene standards and viticulture practices for the wineries.

The wine standards would be notified by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), while the actual groundwork would be done by MoFPI, Indian Grape Processing Board and National Research Centre for Grapes.

U Venkateswarlu, Joint Secretary, MoFPI told Business Line that Indian wineries find it difficult to sell their products in overseas market because they have not been able to produce wines to the global standards.

On the other hand, importers unload poor quality in Indian market because the Government has not set any quality parameters for these wines. The new standards will address this incongruity in the market, he said.

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The Sweets and Snacks Products (Traditional Sweets) for which the standards have not been prescribed fall under the category of “Proprietary Food”. These products should comply with the regulatory provisions like FSS (Contaminants, Toxins & Residues) Regulation, 2011 and Table 2 of Appendix A and Appendix B of Food Safety and Standards (FSS) (Food Product Standards and Food Additives) Regulation, 2011. Codex has prescribed some standards for Sweets and Snacks under Table 2 of General Standards for Food Additive (GSFA).

Sweets and Snack Products are required to comply with the above mentioned Regulations. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has initiated the process of revision/harmonization of standards for food products with those of Codex and other international best practices and to develop new standards in respect of those food products where there is a need to develop standards taking into account the Codex and other international best practices.

Export promotion of Indian traditional sweets and snack products is looked after by Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, under the Ministry of Commerce. The products have to comply with the standards of the importing countries.

This information was given by Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare Shri Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury in written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.

Mumbai, Maharashtra, May 8, 2013 /India PRwire/ — Global market intelligence firm, Netscribes launched its latest report on the “Snacks Market in India” that elaborates the competitive market scenario of the Indian snacks market and its growth prospects. The report states that the Indian snacks market is witnessing rising demand due to a variety of factors that are in turn is making the market lucrative for manufacturers.

The Indian food and beverage sector is huge and highly competitive in nature. The industry comprises of several sub-sectors such as fruits & vegetables, meat & poultry, dairy, marine products, grains and consumer foods. Snack is one of the major segments of the packaged food division, which comes under the broad category of consumer foods. Though the snacks market in India is dominated by the unorganized sector, the organized sector has shown remarkable growth in terms of market share in the last few years.

The report provides a snapshot of the Indian snack industry which has witnessed several changes since 1995. In the initial years, the market was dominated by two players – traditional snacks player Haldiram and ‘Uncle Chips’ manufacturer Amrit Agro. Eventually however, with the entry of global beverage and snacks player PepsiCo, the market dynamics changed completely. Today, the market is dominated by PepsiCo with of its massive product portfolio. Other major players include Parle Agro, ITC, Parle Products, Balaji Wafers and Parle Wafers among others. A number of regional players have also entered the market in the last few years and are giving tough competition to the big players.

The snacks market is classified into two broad segments – Western and traditional snack segments, wherein western snacks enjoy more popularity in comparison to the traditional snacks. Moreover, the western snack segment is dominated by large number of MNCs and organized snack manufacturers.

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Schedule 4 of the FSS (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Regulation, 2011 prescribes the general hygienic and sanitary requirements to be followed by Food Business Operators.

All Food Business Operators (FBOs) in the Country should get a Central/ State licensing depending upon installed capacity and Registration in case of petty food businesses.

The FBO shall comply with safety, sanitary and hygienic requirements provided in the schedule and contained under different parts depending on nature of business.

The implementation of Food Safety and Standards Act/ Rule/Regulation rests with State Government/ Union Territories. The food safety inspection of these license/ registration establishments is required to be carried out at least once in a year.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare Shri Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury, in written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.

THE licensing and registration of food business operators (FBOs), an exercise which is in progress in other parts of the country for the last one-and-a-half years, has still not started in New Delhi. The reason for this is said to be that the department of food is awaiting the completion of furnishing of the new facilitation centre coming up at Mayur Bhawan in Connaught Place.

It is pertinent to mention here that the deadline for licensing and registration expired, a couple of months ago, but was extended by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) till February 2014. Thus while three months of the extended deadline have already passed, the furnishing is yet to begin. Nevertheless, it has been learnt that the department has taken some steps for the giant task and appointed designated officers for the purpose of keeping an eye on the progress, once the work starts.

K J R Burman, food safety commissioner, Delhi, explained to F&B News, “The centre at Mayur Bhawan would act as a facilitation centre for the purpose of licensing and registration for the districts where our officials would help and guide the applicants in filing of the papers.” He felt that the delay was due to logistical difficulties.

Meanwhile, the biggest hurdle in the process of licensing and registration was the manpower, so the office of the Delhi food safety commissioner decided to make the whole process online. For this as well, the nod by the Food Safety and Standards authority of India (FSSAI) was still awaited by the authorities, though the State Bank of India had agreed to help the department in deposition of fees and so on.

While there were reports of the beginning of the process, Burman clarified that full-fledged operations would only start when the facilitation centre would get furnished with all the necessities. He informed that only those FBOs who operate within and outside Delhi  needed Central licences. Therefore they applied for the same and their matter was considered while the FBOs operating in Delhi needed to wait further.

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Srinagar, May 9: Consuming anything at this Government Medical College, Srinagar run hospital canteen could have left you ailing. Reasons: City’s Health Officer has found its kitchen unhygienic.

During an inspection Thursday the Srinagar Municipal Corporation(SMC)  Health Officer Dr Rubeena Shaheen found the kitchen of SMHS Hospital canteen in unhealthy conditions even as she slapped a fine on the accused.
“Fine was also imposed and recovered from SMHS canteen on finding its kitchen in ill sanitary conditions,” an official handout from the SMC said.“The Health Officer along with her team of food Safety Task Force inspected various food outlets, restaurants,  confectionaries  in Karan Nagar and its adjoining areas including GMC and the associated hospitals. All these food establishments were inspected thoroughly and  some of the prominent food establishments were put to inclusive food audit by using various testers and food gadgets for quality check and  for  lifting of variety of samples,” the handout said.
Dr Rubeena accompanied by the Municipal Magistrate  instructed the food outlets to “maintain up to the mark sanitation and all the food handlers were directed to  necessarily wear proper uniform with hand gloves and head gears while preparing food items.”
The SMC Commissioner Dr GN Qasba  has directed the Health Officer “not to spare any such violators/offenders  who are found selling substandard,  stale or expiry food stuff.”
“All such violators  shall be fined and   prosecuted   as per the FSSAI,” he added.
Dr Qasba said the market inspection would be routine affair and that the inspections would be extended to school canteens, restaurants, hotels, hospitals, private institutions and Dhabas etc.
“The HO shall conduct food safety audit at-least twice a week and the report will be significantly made public,” Dr Qasba added.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has proposed to upgrade 72 existing state food labs to Level-1 and set up one new lab in each of 20 districts at Level-2 under the 12th Five Year Plan. This was informed by Dr Manisha Narayan, assistant director (IEC), FSSAI, in response to an email from FnB News.

It has been learnt that the cost of each Level-1 laboratory could be Rs 12 crore and Level-2 – Rs 7 crore. Requirement of these funds will be met from a sum of Rs 2350 crore that the Authority has received for carrying out various activities and executing different schemes under the 12th Plan.

Dr Narayan explained, “Funds sought by FSSAI were Rs 6,548 crore but we had been recommended an outlay of Rs 4,453 crore for the 12th Plan. However, the total allocation of funds was Rs 2,350 crore.”

Since the allocation was not complete and a part of what was sought, it would be subject to Mid-Plan Review and Mid-Course Correction, according to Dr Narayan.

Though there are hopes for Review and Correction, the current allocation under the 12th Plan is poor. This in spite of the fact that 96% of the total allocation of funds under the 11th Plan have been utilised. “The rest 4% has been carried forward,” pointed out Dr Narayan.

Apart from upgrading existing labs and setting up new ones, the Authority has plans for strengthening of infrastructure and capacity building. Dr Narayan stated, “The allocation of funds to various activities would be subject to final approval of the schemes by the EFC (Expenditure Finance Committee).

Dr Narayan informed, “The maintenance of offices for designated officers, food safety officers and adjudicating officer.

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The IDMA (Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association) Nutraceutical Subcommittee organised a conference – Product Registration Under FSSAI – Knowhow & Challenges – here on Friday.

The conference was aimed at both the nutraceutical as well as pharmaceutical sectors and most of the presentations that were a part of the conference pertained to topics related to these sectors.

The conference also included those who were engaged in marketing of nutraceuticals, churning up options for specific healthcare problems.

According to IDMA, in 2006, FSS (Food Safety & Standards) Act was implemented and with that many complex issues pertaining to transition from PFA (Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954) to FSSA were tackled.

The beneficial role of nutra products or nutraceuticals is taken into consideration by healthcare specialists and the consumers looking at the fact that the Indian market valued at $1,480 million (Rs 7, 400 crore) in 2011 is estimated to grow to $2,731 million (Rs 13, 655 crore) by 2016, it was pointed out at the conference.

Mahesh Zagade, food safety commissioner, FDA, Maharashtra, Mumbai, who chaired one of the sessions, said, “The nutraceutical and pharma markets are emerging, but market players should follow the rules. If you do so, you will not meet with obstacles and face issues as those who do not abide by the rules, their licences are cancelled.”

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A meeting on the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), 2006, took place in Chennai recently. It was chaired by Kumar Jeyanth, commissioner, food safety, health and family welfare department, Government of Tamil Nadu. Colonel C R Dalal, director (enforcement), Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), New Delhi, attended the meeting, where a Memorandum was submitted by the Tamilnadu Foodgrains Merchants Association (TFMA). S P Jeyapragasam and S V S S Velshankar, TFMA’s president and secretary respectively, represented the Madurai-based association at the meeting.

The TFMA office-bearers, who had earlier presented the memorandum to Ghulam Nabi Azad, health and family welfare minister, Government of India; S Gandhi Selvan, minister of state for health and family welfare, Government of India, and K Chandramouli, chairman, FSSAI, said, “We welcome the Act and Rules and Regulations (FSSR, 2011) enacted by the Centre, but feel that the shortcomings in the Act were overlooked while framing the same. If these hardships are not overcome, farmers, manufacturers of food products and small and big traders of food products would have no choice but to consider pursuing another occupation.”

Jeyapragasam and Velshankar requested Jeyanth and Dalal to seek an audience with the concerned minister and food safety officials on behalf of the government of the southern state and take up the TFMA’s demands (which are listed as follows):

A coordination committee appointed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) – the country’s apex food regulator – visited nine food markets in Ahmedabad recently, selected about 100 food joint owners and their employees and trained them at the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s (AMC) new West Zone office over a period of four days to prepare and serve food to their customers in a hygienic manner.

H G Koshia, commissioner, Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) Gujarat, was a member of the team that imparted the training, as were Mahesh Soni, deputy secretary, investigation, FDCA Gujarat, and Atul Soni, public analyst, AMC. The trainees were vendors at the Vastrapur, Kankaria, Akhbarnagar, Khokhra, Manek Chowk and Law Garden markets, and non-vegetarian ones such as Jamalpur, Teen Darwaja and Juhapura.

“Our teams visited the markets, observed the way the vendors work and took their photographs before selecting the vendors for training. We chalked out a training programme and the trainees were given complementary kits comprising gloves, aprons and caps, which they were asked to wear while cooking food and serving it to the customers.

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Pepper futures contracts on commodity exchanges might be re-launched soon when the controversial mineral oil issue is resolved.

The issue had rocked the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and led to sealing of 8,000 tonnes of the commodity in Kochi and suspension of trade in December 2012. The Forward Markets Commission (FMC) had asked the National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) to resolve the issue before granting permission to re-launch the contracts, temporarily suspended a few months ago.

Following this, NCDEX released the payment for testing the samples of pepper sealed by FSSAI, applying for new contracts afresh. As FMC didn’t mention mineral oil testing in the contract, it chose to suspend the contract to avoid controversy. Meanwhile, the mineral oil issue related to the pepper stocks sealed by FSSAI in Kochi has gradually lost relevance.

Used to polish sub-standard pepper, mineral oil evaporates after three months. That FSSAI is in no hurry to release the sealed pepper is evident from the fact that a random check of two lots (of nine tonnes and 24 tonnes) in February found no trace of mineral oil.

The two lots were found deposited by farmers who, according to experts, did not have adequate resources and skill for mineral oil polishing.

However, now, FSSAI has changed the evaluation method. Against random checks earlier, it is now evaluating the stocks through the cleansing method—samples from all packets are taken for testing in an independent laboratory. “We are aware of the fact that pepper absorbs mineral oil and chances are the traces of mineral oil, if any, would evaporate over time.

Hence, instead of random checks earlier, we are carrying out the cleansing method of sampling, which would necessarily call for samples from every pack,” said Anil Kumar, joint commissioner of FSSAI, Thiruvananthapuram.

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FDA begins checking on high-end eateries in second phase of cleanliness drive; over 1,000 establishments have been inspected and 200 served notices in the past year.

Barbeque Nation, the popular eatery at Pali Hill, has been served an “improvement notice” by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) department, following an inspection of the premises a few days ago. The notice was served after the FDA team found that the eatery lacked basic hygiene and cleanliness. 

The FDA team found that Barbeque Nation lacked basic cleanliness

The move is the second phase of an FDA drive to check top notch eateries, after officials found that several high end establishments were not adhering to accepted cleanliness standards.
“We inspected the place last month and found that the eatery lacked cleanliness and basic hygiene wasmissing.Forinstance,theirwater storage tank was not well maintained, and they were not segregating dry and wet waste. The eatery’s floor too was not kept clean,” said Suresh Deshmukh, Joint Commissioner, Food, FDA.
“After a thorough inspection my officers issued them an improvementnotice,askingthemtoimmediately make the necessary changes,” Deshmukh said, adding that the eateryalsofailedtoproducemedicalcertificates of their employees, which is mandatory for an eatery as per the Food Safety Standards Authority Act.
Between April 2012 and March 2013,theFDAhasinspected1,158establishments in the city and served improvement notices to over 200 eateries.
“In the first phase of our drive, we clamped down on smaller eateries and are now targeting top notch establishments. This should serve as a warning for eateries to implement the necessary changes, failing which they are likely to be penalized or even have their licence revoked,” Deshmukh said.
When contacted, Barbeque Nation admitted to the notice from FDA. Their spokesman said, “Yes, we had a thorough FDA inspection at our Khar outlet. They have sent us an improvement note on how to better the hygiene in our kitchen and restaurant, and we have begun implementing the suggestions. For example, we’ve started maintaining an ‘in and out’ register of all perishable items on a daily basis. We have also improved our garbage disposal system and are segregating the wet and dry garbage before disposing it.”

A coordination committee appointed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) – the country’s apex food regulator – visited nine food markets in Ahmedabad recently, selected about 100 food joint owners and their employees and trained them at the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s (AMC) new West Zone office over a period of four days to prepare and serve food to their customers in a hygienic manner.

H G Koshia, commissioner, Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) Gujarat, was a member of the team that imparted the training, as were Mahesh Soni, deputy secretary, investigation, FDCA Gujarat, and Atul Soni, public analyst, AMC. The trainees were vendors at the Vastrapur, Kankaria, Akhbarnagar, Khokhra, Manek Chowk and Law Garden markets, and non-vegetarian ones such as Jamalpur, Teen Darwaja and Juhapura.

“Our teams visited the markets, observed the way the vendors work and took their photographs before selecting the vendors for training. We chalked out a training programme and the trainees were given complementary kits comprising gloves, aprons and caps, which they were asked to wear while cooking food and serving it to the customers.
They were also asked to undergo regular health check-ups,” Koshia said.“Our teams visited the markets, observed the way the vendors work and took their photographs before selecting the vendors for training. We chalked out a training programme and the trainees were given complementary kits comprising gloves, aprons and caps, which they were asked to wear while cooking food and serving it to the customers. They were also asked to undergo regular health check-ups,” Koshia said.

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MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court today suggested the Maharashtra government to frame separate rules and regulations under the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA) for food service providers like hotels and restaurants.

A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice M S Sanklecha was hearing a petition filed by the Association of Indian Hotels and Restaurants ( AHAR), which has over 6000 members, challenging the constitutional validity of FSSA 2006 and the Rules and Regulations framed under the Act in 2011.

According to the petitioner association, the provisions of FSSA are not applicable to food service providers like hotels and restaurants as they do not manufacture food.

“The Act deals only with manufacturing of food articles and are mainly and substantially for manufacturing units. In hotels and restaurants food is cooked and served to customers. Cooking of food is not manufacturing,” the petition states.

The petition further claims that the FSSA and its rules are ex-facie, ambiguous and unconstitutional and should be declared null and void. The association has sought direction to the government to create separate rules for food service providers and also declare that the FSSA is applicable to manufacturing units.

The bench while issuing notices to the union government, state government and Food Safety and Standards Authority suggested the Maharashtra government to frame new rules for hotels and restaurants.

It is a continuous endeavour by the Indian Railways to provide good quality hygienic food to railway passengers. Accordingly, New Catering Policy 2010 has been introduced on July 21, 2010, with a mandate for effective quality assurance programme, wherein ISO-22000 standards are being progressively implemented for major contracts / units. This information was given by minister of state for railways Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on Friday.

Supervision and monitoring have been strengthened through a mechanism put in place by deploying railway personnel, who check quality and hygiene and take corrective action in a time-bound manner. Catering Monitoring Cells have been set up at zonal and divisional level for daily monitoring of the catering activities.

Further, on the same pattern, a Centralised Catering Complaint Monitoring Cell has been set up in board’s office having a toll free number 1800-111-321 for prompt redressal of the passenger grievances related to catering in real-time assistance.

A total number of 405 food samples were picked up for sample tests from Rajdhani Express trains, including Guwahati- and Dibrugarh-bound trains in the year 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13.

Appropriate action under Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954, / Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, has been initiated for food samples found unfit. Besides this, departmental actions like imposition of fine, warning etc. have been undertaken.

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