India seeking $99 million from Nestlé over noodle soup scare

Posted on August 13, 2015 by Douglas Powell

NPR reports the Indian government is seeking $99 million in damages from Swiss food and beverage giant Nestlé over the recent food scare involving the Maggi brand of instant noodles that are a household staple in India.

The class action, filed late Tuesday before India’s National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, accuses Nestlé of “gross negligence, apathy and callousness.”

The government had ordered the popular snack cleared from the country’s shelves in June, after India’s food and safety regulators said they found unacceptable levels of lead in some samples, as well as the presence of monosodium glutamate, despite a label that said “No MSG.”

In response, Nestlé pulled nearly 400 million packets of its No. 1-selling brand from Indian stores.

Dismissing the allegations, Nestlé Chairman Peter Brabeck told the Swiss newspaper Handleszeitung that Indian authorities forced Nestlé to burn 29,000 tons worth of “quality” food in the instant noodle soup dispute. He’s quoted as saying, “Laboratories in the United States, Britain, Australia and Singapore did not find anything harmful in the noodles. Our products are safe for consumers.” Brabeck added, “Nevertheless, the case in India is not harmless and should not be underestimated.”

The food safety scare that has been a commercial disaster for Nestlé has also exposed issues with India’s food safety regulatory system.

Global brands stretched by India’s food safety record

Posted on June 21, 2015 by Douglas Powell

At a McDonald’s plant outside Mumbai, 200 workers walk through air dryers and disinfectant pools, then get to work making the day’s 25,000 patties from chicken painstakingly sourced in a country with one of the world’s worst food safety records.

To safeguard its multibillion-dollar brand, McDonald’s says more than 100 checks it applies across its international operations are then carried out after that.

India’s tainted water, patchy cold storage network and a retail sector made up of tiny local grocers present a major risk for international food brands, whose reputation can suffer globally from one local slip.

This can mean educating hundreds of small, often illiterate, farmers – critical in a fragmented farming sector that in some cases still uses “night soil”, or human faeces, for composting.

“There are thousands of farmers you need to reach out to, each with maybe an acre, two acres of land,” said Vikram Ogale, who looks after the supply chain and quality assurance for McDonald’s India.

Swiss food group Nestle is currently battling India’s biggest food scare in a decade and an unprecedented branding crisis in the country, after regulators reported some packets of its noodles contained excess lead, a finding the company disputes.

Its woes have laid bare the risks of operating in a country where it is difficult to build a watertight supply chain, and where state food safety infrastructure is minimal, at best.

Nestle uses external audit firms to check suppliers.

Wal-Mart, which operates as a wholesaler in India, says its checks mean rejecting 10-11 percent of produce daily.

Nestle is now pushing ahead with India’s first ever national recall, pulling some 27,400 tonnes of its popular Maggi noodles off India’s shelves, a process that will take at least 40 days.

Street food vendors in Hyderabad, India have some food safety issues

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Ben Chapman

I’m a food truck kind of guy, but I prefer to eat from places that have to follow the basic rules of sanitation. In North Carolina mobile food vendors have to be linked up with a physical kitchen (for cooling and prepping food) and even then they are inspected. Keeping food safe in a truck can be done, but it takes vigilance and a sense of hazard identification.

And not using water from a toilet.

Like what the Times of India reported about some street food vendors in Hyderabad, India.

Every sixth Hyderabadi taking street food is falling sick from food-borne infections (whoa, I’d like to see the data -ben), says a study that directly observed the hygienic practices followed by 500 food vendors and small restaurants in different parts of the city.

The most common ailments reported by denizens after eating street food or ‘stale’ food served by some established restaurants are diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, reveals a study released to mark the ‘food safety’ theme on World Health Day.

And here’s why: The majority of street food vendors (423 out of 500 surveyed) were found drawing untreated water for cooking from nearby apartments, while only seven were using protective head cover. None were using protective gloves and almost all used nearby shops to dump their raw material overnight.

“Our team, which also communicated with customers, came across around 50 vendors with tobacco addiction, leaving the remnants of the ash on the food being served,” said Dr K Suresh, president of Osmania Medical College Doctors’ Forum, who led the study.

Worse, 15 out of 500 vendors were found drawing water for cooking from toilets of nearby apartments, while almost all were found to skip hand washing after a visit to the toilet or lavatory. This is what the 30-member team of MBBS undergraduates led by Dr Suresh found after analyzing data gathered from street- vendors from December-2014 to February-2015.

Less talk, more action: Food safety seminars not cutting it

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Douglas Powell

I gave up on the conference thing about 10 years ago.

And started videoconferencing talks that people, I guess, really wanted me to do.

It’s a long way from Kansas or Australia to, anywhere.

Kerala University of Health Sciences Vice-Chancellor M K C Nair told The Indian Express, it is time to go beyond discussions and talks.

“It is time to act. We just listen to the suggestions during discussions and seminars. But we don’t take any pain to implement it. In the case of foodborne diseases, it seems that people, including myself, are yet to stop consuming unhealthy food. It is something related to our mindset. If people still consume chemical-infected vegetables despite the news reports about its adverse affects it is because they are yet to take the issue seriously.”

That’s a nice sentiment, but Nair also suggested that the only way to avoid consumption of contaminated vegetables is to raise a vegetable garden in every house (and no doubt use night soil).

The contradictions.

Worm found in food, 7 suffer food poisoning in India

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Seven people from Kuniamuthur, in Coimbatire, were admitted in the government hospital, Coimbatore, with complaints of food poisoning on Sunday. All seven of them say they had gone together to a chaat outlet where a worm was found in a plate of mushroom fry. The food safety department raided the chaat outlet on Monday afternoon.

The seven of them, claimed that they had been suffering from severe diarrhea and bouts of vomiting since Sunday evening

The food safety department, suspect the food poisoning to have been triggered due to the use of spoilt mushroom or cauliflower, raided the canteen and the store. The stall in the canteen was reportedly shut down on Monday.

Food fraud: Iron dust in tea and brick powder in chilli in India

Posted on March 19, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Frequent warnings and raids seem to have little impact on rampant food adulteration in the district. Over the last six months, food safety officials registered 45 cases against producers and shopkeepers for selling adulterated packed food following complaints and random raids.

The adulteration was mainly reported in tea powder, coconut oil, chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, peas dal, chips and many spices sold in the district.

For colouring grocery, many producers were found to be using non-permissible colours such as coal tar dyes. The most startling find was the presence of powdered iron even in branded tea powder packets. Officials have registered four cases in this regard.

During inspections, they sub-standard oil mixed with coconut oil, non-permissible starch in coriander and turmeric powder, coal tar dyes in peas dal, yellow colour in chips and sudan dye used for colouring chilli powder.

Temple crowd suffers food poisoning in India

Posted on February 23, 2015 by Douglas Powell

At least 500 persons, majority of them children, were admitted in various hospitals in and around Kanhangad on Thursday following suspected food poisoning.

They are said to have taken food from a temple Attenganam, 15 km from Kanhangad, as part of the Shivaratri festival on February 13 and 14. Condition of some of the victims was said to be critical.

Food safety systems in India challenged by hygiene related problems

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Indian food safety systems are challenged by the rapidly growing population, hygiene related problems, incidences of residues of antibiotics and heavy metals, foodborne pathogens, incidence of infectious diseases in food producing animals and anti- microbial resistance.

These observations were made by experts addressing the recently-held National Symposium on Food Safety of Animal Origin, arranged during the XIII Annual Conference of Indian Association of Veterinary and Public Health.

Expressing his views at the symposium, Prof. Suresh S Honnappagol,animal husbandry commissioner, Government of India, stated, “The traditional production, processing and waste handling systems coupled with unhygienic practices in particular have tainted and tarnished the image of the Indian meat industry.”

Further, a panel of experts pointed out that population and income growth were driving enormous increases in demand for foods of animal origin. Livestock production systems are facing increasing demands for livestock feeds relative to availabilities. Accurate assessments of current and future supplies and demands for livestock feed are needed for national food and feed security policy and planning. The development of National Feed Assessment Systems (NFASs) is suggested to support sustainable livestock sector growth.

Dr C Renukaprasad, vice-chancellor, KVAFSU, Bidar,stated,“There is need to have extensive knowledge about the main health hazards associated with consumption of meat, poultry and eggs and their epidemiology in animals and humans. In addition, the risk analysis and HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points). There must be an awareness of international regulation concerning the safety of meat, poultry and eggs and related trade issues.There is also need to put in risk-based inspection procedures.”

Walk the talk: Role of animal husbandry, food safety, MC officials criticized in India

Posted on February 9, 2015 by Douglas Powell

The role of officials of the Animal Husbandry Department, Food Safety Standard (FSS) and Municipal Corporation (MC) is under the scanner for giving a free run to a Shoghi-based private slaughterhouse. Two recent joint inspections during the bird flu scare has exposed that the slaughterhouse is not being run as per FSS norms as reports have pointed out blatant shortcomings there.

The six-member team’s report of the slaughterhouse, run by the Goels Food World, Shoghi, which is with The Tribune, revealed that the slaughterhouse was compromising on health and hygiene as 20-30 dead birds were lying on the dirty floor. Also, the slaughterhouse had no rendering facility.

Besides, the staff used no protecting gears and the effluent treatment facility was non-functional. It had no veterinarian to conduct the ante-mortem and post-mortem of the birds and cull the dead or unfit birds, the inspection revealed. Though the slaughterhouse was being run since 2006, the unit was registered as a food technology unit.

The inspection was carried out on August 6, 2014, and followed by another inspection on December 27, which found similar shortcomings.

The report also exposed the paperwork being done by the government agencies. The six-member team included officials from the Animal Husbandry Department, MC, veterinary officers, Pollution Control Board, but no official from the Directorate of Health and the FSS was involved.

Neither the MC-run slaughterhouse here nor the private slaughterhouse was quarantined for bird flu, as mandated under the FSS rules and WHO norms for bird and swine flus, revealed health experts.

The Municipal Commissioner, Shimla, said they had issued a notice to the private operator to stop the unethical practice of selling uncertified meat in the municipal limits after the joint inspection report pointed out the shortcomings at the slaughterhouse. “We have set up a modern slaughterhouse and monitor it daily but we cannot check the private one directly as it falls outside the limits of the corporation,” he added.

Litchi fruit connection? Outbreaks of unexplained neurologic illness in India

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Douglas Powell

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that outbreaks of an unexplained acute neurologic illness affecting young children and associated with high case-fatality rates have been reported in the Muzaffarpur district of Bihar state in India since 1995.

The outbreaks generally peak in June and decline weeks later with the onset of monsoon rains. There have been multiple epidemiologic and laboratory investigations of this syndrome, leading to a wide spectrum of proposed causes for the illness, including infectious encephalitis and exposure to pesticides. An association between illness and litchi fruit has been postulated because Muzaffarpur is a litchi fruit–producing region (Figure 1).

To better characterize clinical and epidemiologic features of the illness that might suggest its cause and how it can be prevented, the Indian National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and CDC investigated outbreaks in 2013 and 2014. Clinical and laboratory findings in 2013 suggested a noninflammatory encephalopathy, possibly caused by a toxin. A common laboratory finding was low blood glucose (<70 mg/dL) on admission, a finding associated with a poorer outcome; 44% of all cases were fatal. An ongoing 2014 investigation has found no evidence of any infectious etiology and supports the possibility that exposure to a toxin might be the cause. The outbreak period coincides with the month-long litchi harvesting season in Muzaffarpur. Although a specific etiology has not yet been determined, the 2014 investigation has identified the illness as a hypoglycemic encephalopathy and confirmed the importance of ongoing laboratory evaluation of environmental toxins to identify a potential causative agent, including markers for methylenecyclopropylglycine (MCPG), a compound found in litchi seeds known to cause hypoglycemia in animal studies (1–3). Current public health recommendations are focused on reducing mortality by urging affected families to seek prompt medical care, and ensuring rapid assessment and correction of hypoglycemia in ill children.

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