Tag Archives: india

Would you like worms with that chicken? Closure notice issued to KFC outlet in India

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The Hindu reports food safety officials issued a closure notice to a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) at Pulimood, India, following a complaint about live worms inside the chicken served to a family via a toll-free line.

“A family which had come to eat at the KFC outlet had called saying that there were live worms in the fried chicken they had been served. They said that they had torn a piece of chicken apart to feed their toddler when they spotted scores of wriggly worms inside the meat. We were sceptical at first about finding live worms inside chicken which had been fried. But it turned out to be true,” a senior food safety official said.

A squad of officials, led by District Designated Food Safety Officer D. Sivakumar, reached the outlet and collected the samples of the incriminating food.

Officials said the frozen chicken was brought in bulk from Coimbatore by the food chain, but obviously the cold-chain maintenance must have been poor, leading to the spoilage of the meat and worms starting to fester inside.

They said the method of frying adopted – quick frying in extremely hot oil – did not kill the worms as the heat had not penetrated inside.

Indian state eyes Dubai model to ensure food safety

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My friend Bobby Krishna (right, pretty much as shown), senior food studies officer in the food control department of Dubai Municipality, is making inroads in india.

The Hindu reports the Kerala State Food Safety wing is looking to the Dubai Municipality food control department to help it develop food safety manuals and food inspection checklists so that the food safety initiatives here can be made more scientific and standardized.

A formal collaboration with the Dubai municipality for initiatives in improving food safety is also being contemplated, said Biju Prabhakar, commissioner of food safety, adding, “We thought of seeking the assistance of Dubai Municipality Food Control Department because even though their food safety initiative is fairly nascent, it is fully backed by science, is well-streamlined and has found considerable acceptance in the food industry too.”

Krishna told The Hindu here on Saturday that food safety was a global concern and had to be approached in a larger perspective, as a crucial component of public health, and a vital element of economy, especially with Kerala exploring its tourism potential in a big way.

“Just as it happened in Kerala, in Dubai too, the food safety drive gained momentum in 2009 following the death of two young children, reportedly due to food poisoning. It gave us the impetus to drive hard — the licensing process, grading of food businesses, hygiene and safety standards, classification of food items, and the shelf life of each… everything was fully backed by evidence. We also invested quite a lot on educating those in the business about the basics of food safety, like hygienic food handling and preventing cross-contamination etc,” Mr. Krishna said.

The first step in having a streamlined food safety management system is in getting everyone in the food business to take licences/registrations. There has to be a grading system for hotels/ eateries so that each works within its scope.

“You need to develop a good food safety team, which includes food safety experts, risk assessors, including biochemistry and microbiology experts, epidemiologists, all backed with international food safety resources. Food inspectors have to undergo rigorous training and follow standard procedure,” he said.

As for street vendors, he suggested that the government create ‘safe zones’ in various parts of the city where all safe processes and infrastructure for producing safe food could be provided by the government. Vendors could be given subsidy for utilising these resources.

The recent initiative of the Dubai municipality, called the Person-in-Charge (PIC) programme — an initiative that Kerala could emulate — was expected to make Dubai attain world-class standards in food safety.

When the mango bites back

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As a large-scale outbreak of Salmonella Braenderup appears to be forming in Canada and the U.S. from Mexican mangoes, New York Times reporter Gardiner Harris, who has written plenty about food safety over the years, has his own crappy experience with mangoes in India.

Harris writes he accepted a just picked mango from a stranger in New Delhi and that putting it directly into my mouth — skin and all — was stupid.

“But why did my first horrible case of traveler’s diarrhea in India have to result from a mango? I love mangoes, and India’s vast array of deliciously different mango varieties has been one of the great delights of moving here.

“You didn’t even wash it?” Dr. Paul Offit, chief of infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, asked me later.

“No.

“Even by your standards, that was really stupid,” Dr. Offit said.

“Indeed, my wife joined me for the first week of my stay here before returning temporarily to the United States, and within four days she became terribly ill. I freely dispensed what turned out to be terrible advice, suggesting in the early hours of her illness that she avoid taking one of the antibiotic pills that we had brought for just such an eventuality.

“My advice sprang from the mistaken belief that the good bacteria in her gut had a fighting chance against the bad bacteria. “Honey, taking an antibiotic is like carpet-bombing a battlefield,” I told her in confident tones. “You kill off all the good guys as well as the bad guys. Let’s see if the good guys rally first.

“They did not. As it turns out, the fight against toxic bacteria is largely waged by the body’s immune system, not the sweet-tempered millions found in a spoonful of yogurt.”

At least he admitted he was dumb. But how much dumb – or slanted – advice was spewed out in the pages of the N.Y. Times over the years?

Salmonella in spices, again

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Euro Spices Pty Ltd has recalled ground coriander and other spice mixes, sourced from India and available at fruit and vegetable shops and independent supermarkets in New South Wales (that’s a state in Australia) due to Salmonella contamination.

According to Food Standards Australia New Zealand, the recalled products include:
• Coriander Ground 50g resealable bag
• Coriander Ground 70g plastic jar
• Almond Dukkah 50g resealable bag
• Almond Dukkah 100g glass jar
• Dukka Pistachio 100g glass jar
• Kofta Bahari 60g resealable bag
• Kabse Mix 60g resealable bag
• Dolma Bahari 60g resealable bag
• Shawarma 60g resealable bag
• Ras El Hanoot 50g resealable bag
• Harissa 60g resealable bag
• Lebanese 7 Spices 50g resealable bag
• Biryani 60g resealable bag

Date marking
Best Before December 2015 (jars display Best Before date as 12\2015).

Sushi eaters rejoice; slime from India; 141 sick

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The sushi slime, or tuna backmeat that has now been linked to 141 confirmed Salmonella illnesses, up from 116, originated at a tuna processing facility in India.

Sushi eaters, you thought you were eating what? The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has conducted a traceback of tuna from four of the outbreak clusters, in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Texas, and Wisconsin, and found that all four received the same imported frozen raw Nakaochi Scrape tuna product from a single tuna processing facility in India.

Chapman and I chatted today – with his kids, extended family, burgeoning home canning career – he had to escape the Food Safety Summit in D.C. to catch up. He told me one of the industry types said everyone uses this stuff, which has helped propel the popularity of sushi eating.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported today the number of confirmed Salmonella Bareilly linked to this outbreak has increased to 141 from 20 states and the District of Columbia.

The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Alabama (2), Arkansas (1), Connecticut (6), District of Columbia (2), Florida (1), Georgia (6), Illinois (13), Louisiana (3), Maryland (14), Massachusetts (9), Mississippi (2), Missouri (4), New Jersey (8), New York (28), North Carolina (2), Pennsylvania (6), Rhode Island (5), South Carolina (3), Texas (4), Virginia (8), and Wisconsin (14). 21 ill persons have been hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported.

Fake inspectors a problem in India too

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It’s not just the greater Atlanta-area where wannabies are trying to trade on the rock-star status of public health inspectors.

In India, the Oshiwara police have arrested two men for allegedly posing as Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials and trying to extort Rs 50,000 from a bakery in the area.

Police officers said the incident took place on Friday afternoon when four men entered the bakery shop on SV Road in Jogeshwari West and complained about the quality of food. They told the owner of the bakery that they were officers from FDA and had been getting complaints from its customers about the inferior quality of products.

They demanded Rs 50,000 from him to shut the case and not seize his shop and goods in it. Sensing foul play, the owner asked them to show him their identification cards.

The men presented their ID cards, but the owner found them suspicious. He immediately alerted the police patrolling the area. On the arrival of the police, two of the fake FDA officers managed to flee, while the other two were nabbed and arrested.

McLaren fly in reinforcements after food poisoning at Indian Grand Prix

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Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel won the inaugural Formula One Indian Grand Prix on Sunday, finishing 8.4 seconds ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button, whose team had to fly in replacements from Britain after four members fell sick days before the race.

While teams have sourced some of their food locally, much of it has been flown out from Europe and drivers are being careful about what they eat in a land famed for fiery curries and consequent stomach upsets.

Sauber had a team PR fall sick but none of the other teams approached by Reuters reported any problems.

A street vendor and a cup

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A 59-year-old paani puri vendor in Naupada (near Thane, that’s in India) was detained on Thursday for peeing into a small utensil that he otherwise used to serve his customers.

Consumer video cams rule.

The Mumbai Mirror reports that Rajdev Lakhan Chauhan, who has been serving chaat in Bhaskar Colony in Naupada for four years, was picked up by cops after a resident captured the rather disgusting act on camera from a nearby balcony.

Whistle-blower Ankita Rane, a 19-year-old student, was shocked when she first spotted Chauhan urinating into his lota. “His stall is right below our building. Though there were rumours of him being quite gross, his stall was always flooded with customers,” she said. “Since I had nothing to do after my exams, I started keeping an eye on him.

“Every day, he’d pee into the utensil and then use the same to pour tangy water into the ragda or stir the paani puri mix. Some customers even used that lota to drink water once they had finished eating.”

When she told her family members and neighbours, however, they refused to believe her. When residents in the area saw the video she had recorded, they first beat up Chauhan before taking him to the police station.

“Residents of Bhaskar Colony came up with a video clip that showed Chauhan urinating in one of his utensils. We arrested him on Monday night and he confessed. His excuse was that he had nowhere else to pee as there was no urinal around,” Police Inspector Hemant Sawant said, adding that Chauhan said he felt uncomfortable peeing on the streets as Bhaskar Colony was a clean, residential area.

Amazing Boring Race plays with poop in India

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Amy watches The Amazing Race for some wind-down after a day of Sorenne and French literature.

I go to bed.

On Sunday night, the racers went to India and had to choose between feed the fire or feed the buffalo. For feed the fire, teams navigated the Ganges River to the home of a milkman. Once there, they had to make 50 traditional fuel patties out of buffalo manure and then slap them on the wall to dry in the sun. Finally, teams loaded a stove with fuel patties and lit a fire to boil milk for the local children.

Using poop to cook the poop out of milk.

But at least they wore plastic gloves.

For feed the buffalo, teams crossed the Ganges, pick up a large load of hay, cross the Ganges again and carry their hay through the narrow streets to a designated address.

The sisters choose buffalo, not knowing there was poop involved. "Man, the crap you do for a million dollars," sister Jen says. Both start gagging over the stench while the local kiddies watch and laugh. When the sisters are done, their poop piles don’t pass muster, and they have to redo a couple.

Doctors sickened by sandwiches at India hospital causes gynecologist shortage

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Around 50 doctors from the Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad fell sick from food poisoning after consuming tainted sandwiches, leaving a critical shortage in the gynecology wing.

That’s what MedIndia reported.

The doctors, who had assembled for a continuing education program in gynecology, apparently ate snacks from a bakery. The eatables were purchased from Mac Allen Bakery at Padmarao Nagar.

The doctors ate the snacks on Friday, but fell sick on Sunday and only then realized that it was in fact the food, which was an issue.