WAT THE LAWS ARE FOR????????

JUST LAWS!!! EVERYONE BREAKS!!!!

The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 aims at making provisions for the prevention of adulteration of food. The Act extends to the whole of India and came into force on 1^st June 1955.

WHAT IS ADULTERATED FOOD?

An article of food shall be deemed to be adulterated -

1. if the article sold by a vendor is not of the nature, substance or quality demanded by the purchaser or which it purports to be;

2. if the article contains any substance affecting its quality or of it is so processed as to injuriously affect its nature, substance or quality;

3. if any inferior or cheaper substance has been substituted wholly or partly for the article, or any constituent of the article has been wholly or partly abstracted from it, so as to affecting its quality or of it is so processed as to injuriously affect its nature, substance or quality;

4. if the article had been prepared, packed or kept under insanitary conditions whereby it has become contaminated or injurious to health;

5. if the article consists wholly or in part of any filthy, putrid, disgusting, rotten, decomposed or diseased animal or vegetable substance or being insect-infested, or is otherwise unfit for human consumption;

6. if the article is obtained from a diseased animal;

7. if the article contains any poisonous or other ingredient which is injurious to health;

8. if the container of the article is composed of any poisonous or deleterious substance which renders its contents injurious to health;

9. if the article contains any prohibited colouring matter or preservative, or any permitted colouring matter or preservative in excess of the prescribed limits;

10. if the quality or purity of the article falls below the prescribed standard, or its constituents are present in proportions other standard, or its constituents are present in proportions other than those prescribed, whether or not rendering it injurious to health.

SEA FOOD ADULTERATION!!!!
Seafood industry of Asian countries is in the threat of ban on their export of seafood to Canada as a recent report of imported seafood from Asian countries had the banned chemical Malachite green in the fish tissues.//

Critics feel that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency should follow strict stringent rules and should test all batches of imported seafood coming into the country for the presence of Malachite green and its byproducts. Consumer Association of Canada feels that the consumers should be aware of the risks of eating Malachite green.

Indian Export: Export Inspection Agency of india (EIA) is responsible for testing and surveillance of adulteration of seafood. EIA conducts monthly inspection of the aquaculture ponds and each batch of frozen seafood products before exporting to other countries. Malachite green and microbial contamination is tested by EIA laboratories before certifying the product for export.

Malachite green: Malachite green is an inexpensive and effective preservative which is used by fishermen for preservation of aquaculture products from contamination of fungus growth during storage and travel. Leucomalachite is the product of malachite green which persists in fish tissues for long periods. In 1992, the Canadian Government found that Malachite green may cause cancer in the consumers and ordered that seafood should not contain malachite green and even a very minimum quantity of malachite green in fish was considered as adulterated food.

Sale of adulterated sweets unabated !!!!
Don’t get fancy ideas over a box of beautifully packed sweets bearing the name of a reputed ‘halwai’ shop or a well laid out dish in a roadside eatery, or even for that matter, a good restaurant in an upmarket commercial area in the city.

A piece of mouth watering sweet or a lavish dish one might consume after paying a hefty price, can in fact, turn out to be a grave health hazard if the unrestrained adulteration, poor hygienic conditions of the kitchens and workshops, along with lack of other basic public health safety measures prevailing in the city, are any indication.

With the festive season at its peak and the hoards of sweet sellers here about to rake in tonnes of money on Divali which is just two days away, the danger to the health of people due to the consumption of adulterated and poor quality sweets, confectionary and other food items, has also increased in the same proportions.

If sources in the sweet selling trade are to be believed, the haul of 3.5 tonnes of ‘khoya’ seized a couple of days back, is not even the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Even the conservative estimates of sale of sweets during the festivities around Divali in the city, are put at several hundred tonnes, with the preparation of different varieties of sweets and confectionary items commencing a fortnight before.

Doctors in various hospitals here point out that due to a long gap between the preparation of sweets and their consumption, coupled with poor quality of inputs and unhygienic conditions prevailing in most of the workshops of ‘halwais’, the consumption of such food items can lead to serious gastric disorders and, at times, even cancer of the intestines.

Officials of the Health Department, as well as the civic body, as is their wont, continue to pay just lip service to the task of enforcement and regulation, assigned to them while those wreaking havoc on the health of people keep making money at the expense of unsuspecting customers.

A majority of the people from different walks of life whom Ludhiana Tribune talked to on this subject were of the opinion that the so-called procedure of sample taking from sweet shops and other eating joints was a mere eye wash. “The officials responsible for keeping a check on food adulteration seem to be in league with the defaulters. If that was not the case, why do they target only small venders while the big shark continue to thrive,” they wondered.

PFA ADDED SOME BRANDS TO ADULTERATED!!!

Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Department today added government-brand Dhara to their list of adulterated mustard oil brands, after it tested argemone positive.

With 109 more seriously ill patients being admitted today to government hospitals, Delhi Health Minister Harsh Vardhan declared, ``Not just argemone seeds, the culprits (manufacturers, suppliers and traders) were using mobil oil to adulterate edible mustard oil.''

PFA office at Lawrence Road -- the department with an official brief of acting on complaints of dropsy-effected residents of Delhi and raiding outlets selling mustard oil -- was understaffed today when an Express Newsline team came visiting. Their control room, the telephone number of which is being continuously advertised in newspapers and highlighted at the Delhi government's press conference for registering complaints, was unmanned.

A stenographer working at a nearby table said the telephone line was out of order. ``We cannot seem to receive calls here. We do not know what action has been taken on the reported cases. It is for the police to take action'', she said.

PFA director Ashok Baxi was busy conferring with his colleagues on the official number of samples tested and those found adulterated. The PFA figures for today were: 187 picked up; 110 tested and 49 adulterated.

Baxi was also caught in the midst of issuing a notification banning loose mustard oil in Delhi following yesterday's Delhi High Court order.

``Under Section 7(4) of the PFA Act, the department is issuing a notification for temporary ban of sale of loose mustard oil and also directing the manufacturers not to make 220 gm polypacks,'' Baxi said.

The department is, however, not acting on the Delhi Chief Minister's order to ban the sale of all mustard oil loose or packed. The CM had yesterday put the onus of enforcing the ban order entirely on the PFA.

Defending his position, Baxi said: ``We, the PFA, the LG's office and the Delhi Government, are all issuing separate notifications. We are going to take up the cases of adulteration separately at the special PFA court in Patiala House. Tomorrow 12 cases will be filed.''

Besides issuing notifications and filing cases, the PFA does not seem to be doing much. A mill situated opposite the PFA office, which manufactures mustard oil under the brand name Pan: Pure Mustard Oil, was raided as late as last Sunday when none of the owners were present at the premises.

``We had already stopped production, because nobody is buying loose oil. We supply 15 kg for Rs 770 to retailers in packed tins, which are then sold loose,'' said Mahavir Singh, one of the owners. Inside the factory, however, mustard oil tanks were full to their capacity. The stock -- which could be adulterated -- was never seized or tested by the PFA, and the manufacturer is waiting for the crisis to tide over to release it in the market.

After the oil is extracted from the seeds, the leftover is sold as cow-fodder. Several sacks of the fodder lying in the store had also not been tested for argemone adulteration. Advertised as a hi-tech factory on its brand-label, the unit is seedy and working conditions unhygenic. Even if mills are not manufacturing oil for the time being, allied production activities are in full swing. In the open space right next to the PFA office, truckloads of mustard seeds were being sifted.

``Here good-quality mustard seeds are mixed with inferior-quality seeds, before being supplied to nearby oil factories,'' revealed one of the workers, before being shushed and scolded by the contractor on duty for talking too much


Amway comes under scanner of Drug Control authorities

AMWAY India, wholly-owned subsidiary of the US-based Amway Corporation, has been caught in a controversial situation.

The company has, for the second time, come under the scanner of the Drug Control Authority at least in one state - Kerala — for allegedly selling some of its products under violation of existing food and drugs laws. According to Mr M.P. George, Assistant Drugs Controller, Intelligence Branch, Kerala, Amway India has been selling some of its products as either `food supplements', `nutritional supplements' or `dietary supplements', without obtaining the necessary licences.

"In India, currently, there is no legal entity categorised as a `nutritional' or a `dietary' supplement, either under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act or any other relevant Act. However, Amway has all along been selling these supplements, which leads to violating of the existing norms," Mr George told Business Line.

However, at the same time, Amway India has obtained a stay from the High Court of Kerala, Ernakulum, directing the Drugs Inspector, Office of the Assistant Drug Controller, Ernakulum, and the Drug Controller, Kerala, not to interfere with the manufacture, storage, distribution and sales of the dietary supplements by Amway.

According to a statement provided by Amway to Business Line, the High Court has passed this interim order while hearing a petition filed by the company. The petition was filed pursuant to the action of the Assistant Drug Controller's office, Ernakulum, last month.

Prior to this, the Drug Control Authorities in the State had raided Amway's Cochin office, seizing some dietary supplements and cosmetic products. "The Dug Control Authorities seized these products on the presumption that they were drugs or medicines and hence required a drug license for sale thereof," according to the Amway statement.

Reacting to the High Court directive, Mr George said, "While the High Court has stayed proceedings against Amway which allows the company to continue selling its products as earlier, we will do whatever we can under the ambit of the law. For example, if Amway begins selling more products under the same category, we will again conduct raids."

The communiqué from Amway adds that a similar petition is pending before the High Court of Kerala, when a couple of years ago, the Drug Control Authorities had seized some other nutritional products on similar presumptions. "Amway had challenged the action and the court granted a stay, which still continues. The court had also directed the Drug Control Department to file their reply and get the samples of the products in question analysed. It has been more than a year and nine months since then, and the concerned drug authorities are yet to get the samples analysed as directed by the High Court," said the Amway statement.