Food in Tamil Nadu is the most unsafe in country: FSSAI report. #ChemicalContamination #Jaggery #vegitables
People are moving to natural sweetner instead of using sugar. Using sugar has increase sugar level, obesity and many disease. So people are started using Jagger, Karupatti, panakarkandu, honey and so on . But now seller has started selling contamination Jagger to the market.
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on Tuesday dropped a bombshell saying over 45 per cent of food samples taken for study last year in Tamil Nadu did not meet the required standards with 12.7 % coming up as adulterated and unsafe for consumption.
While FSSAI report on National Milk Safety and Quality Survey released last month revealed the name of toxic contents in samples, the regulatory body has not mentioned the hazardous content in the samples.
However, the report noted that the Disease Burden Epidemiology Reference Group of World Health Organisation has identified 31 food-borne hazards.
“The group has found that frequent causes of food-borne illness are diarrhoeal disease agents, particularly norovirus and Campylobacter spp,” the report said.
Organisms from cattle
“The samples mostly get adulterated because of organisms found in cattle and agriculture field. However, some samples may also contain chemicals used in the local market,” said a food safety officer.
The food regulator blamed the absence of food testing labs and inadequate enforcement authorities for poor quality.
While food safety officials remained tight-lipped on the names of food items, they said steps are being taken to increase vigil and promote hygienic practices among farmers and traders.
On Tuesday, TN Foodgrain Merchants' Association submitted a petition to Agricultural Production Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi seeking government intervention in protecting merchants.
Association state president S P Jayaprakasam told Express that most of the food items which failed the quality test, including foodgrains, vegetables, fruits are contaminated by fertilizers and chemicals used by farmers.
"The FSSAI should release a detailed report of the samples," he said.
The Kerala government has sent an official letter to its counterpart in Tamil Nadu, informing that vegetables bought from the latter contained pesticide residues three to five times higher than the permissible limit.
A team of Kerala food safety officials recently paid a visit to farmlands in nine districts of Tamil Nadu. This was in the wake of a campaign launched by the state against the sale of vegetables with high pesticides content imported from neighbouring states. The drive has come at a time when the country is still reeling under the Maggi controversy and food safety is uppermost on everyone’s mind.
“Food safety officials from the state visited two-three farmlands in nine districts of adjacent Tamil Nadu and prepared the report,” said T V Anupama, Kerala’s food safety commissioner. The districts covered by the Kerala officials include Nagercoil, Dindigul, Tirunelveli and Kodaikanal, she added.
Earlier, a meeting was convened by Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on June 10 to check the import of vegetables high in pesticides content into the state. Anupama said an inter-state secretary-level meeting had been planned next month to discuss the matter.
Deficit in production
According to the state-owned vegetable procurement agency, Kerala Horticultural Products Development Corporation (Horticorp), the state requires 30 lakh tonne of vegetables every year.
However, Kerala produces only 40 per cent of its requirements and imports the rest from neighbouring states. In the past too, there have been several reports by the media on the indiscriminate use of pesticides in vegetables grown in Tamil Nadu.
Last year in November, Chandy had said that Kerala would soon form an authority under the food safety commissioner to check fruits and vegetables entering the domestic market from outside to check contamination. But till date, the authority has not yet been formed.
Kerala’s organic policy
In 2008, Kerala had formulated an organic policy “for making farming sustainable, rewarding and competitive and ensuring poison-free water, soil and food for every citizen”.
At present, with increasing awareness among consumers about the harmful effects of pesticides, there is a high demand for organically-cultivated produce. “Therefore, it has become the solemn responsibility of the government to encourage organic farming to ensure poison-free food at affordable prices to every citizen,” the government policy reads. However, the policy has not been implemented. Even the vegetables produced in the state are contaminated with pesticides.
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