FDA to allow 100 ppm colour for modaks; mawa, khawa under watch

Nagpur: The food and drugs administration (FDA) is set to undertake a stringent drive to ensure Ganeshotsav and the other forthcoming festivals remain high on food safety and hygiene.
FDA will be on high alert mode on food items statewide till December to enforce norms for production of safe and hygienic foods which also included compulsory vaccination of the owners and employees involved in production of food materials.
FDA assistant commissioner Abhay Deshpande said no modaks would be allowed to have permitted food colours more than 100 parts per million (ppm). “Even if one aims to combine or make modaks multi-coloured, the total PPM has to be below 100. The modaks must be sold on trays with ‘best before’ or ‘use by’ tags mentioning the dates of its expiry,” said Deshpande. He added that anyone trying to sell modaks with false dates will face stringent action. “We will collect random samples and send them to the government analyst for examination,” he said.
Deshpande, under supervision of joint commissioner Suresh Annapure, said surprise checks would be conducted from Tuesday onwards. “Our targets would be mawa and khowa stocking at the cold storages. Samples would be collected for scrutiny,” said Deshpande.
Gastroenterologist from city Dr Rachit Agarwal said festive seasons are always periods of high incidences of gastrointestinal ailments. “High caution must be followed while having food made with mawa and colours. Food adulterations can cause diarrhea, vomiting and abdominal pains among other issues,” he said. “With the monsoon still lingering, the hot and humid season is perfect for bacterial and viral infections aggravating the GI problems,” he said.
Deshpande said fine of Rs25,000 would be collected from businessmen with less than Rs12 lakh turnover while the ones with higher turnover would face ‘adjudication’ before the joint commissioner.
Meanwhile, the state FDA has also issued advisories for the food business cartel and also to the customers.
FDA has urged the food manufacturers to use only potable water and refrain from repeating the medium of cooking for more than a couple of times. The milk-based products must be consumed within eight to 10 hours which needs to be mentioned on the wrappers by the manufacturers underlined the advisory issued by joint commissioner SR Kenkre. The advisory has also urged the customers to refrain from purchasing unsealed or damaged sealed products.