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Govt offers free test for adulteration
August 23, 2008
New Delhi:
We are often sceptical about the quality of food items bought from
the neighbourhood kirana shop. But, as helpless consumers, we grudgingly
end up purchasing household stuff with the long-winding legal process
and high costs holding us back from getting them tested for adulteration.
But, now the Directorate of Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA)
of Delhi government,
in its bid to encourage consumers to come forward and get adulteration
tests done for certain items, has announced that it will examine
some products like milk, sweets, ghee, mustard oil, chilli powder,
tea leaves, shakkar, rice etc for colour and starch at its laboratory
during office hours. And it will be free.
As of now, the procedure under Prevention of Food Adulteration
Act, 1954, for filing a complaint against a vendor/manufacturer
is extremely cumbersome and dissuades consumers from taking recourse
to legal help. Said Mohan Lal Agarwal, director, PFA: "The
consumer can only have the food analysed under the Act, by first
formerly informing the vendor/manufacturer at the time of purchase,
that he will be sending the sample for testing purpose. The consumer
has to give a legal notice to the vendor in the presence of an SDM
to buy the sample. Only after that can the sample be tested at PFA
for a fee of Rs 1000. If the item is found to be adulterated, the
case is filed in court. The cases drag on for years dissuading the
consumers."
The law says, if found guilty of adulteration, the penalty is jail
term between 6 months (minimum) and life imprisonment (maximum).
But till now no one has been convicted. Since consumers don't
come forward with complaints, the directorate has also suggested
simple tests that can be carried out in the house itself. All one
needs is chemical compounds easily available in the market.
In the absence of consumers lodging complaints, 27 food inspectors
have the task cut out. They purchase food samples from different
districts in the city for testing purpose. This month 147 samples
have been lifted of which 51 results have been declared and no adulterate
has been found in any of these items, mostly consisting of spices,
milk products, oil and sweetening agents.
"Most commonly adulteration is detected in the form of artificial
colour, generally found in pulses and sweets. Starch is found in
milk products. In pulses, one finds synthetic colour coating. Arhar
Dal is most commonly found to be adulterated this way," said Agarwal.
The food inspectors lift these samples from kirana stores, manufacturers,
retailers and distributors. Only a prescribed quantity, bought by
the food inspector with a written cash memo, can be used as a sample
for testing. Manufacturers or vendors cannot refuse the food inspector
to sell the product. In future, the Food Safety and Standards Act,
2006, will replace the existing food laws.
The law says, if found guilty of adulteration, the penalty is jail
term between 6 months (minimum) and life imprisonment . But till
now no one has been convicted.
Source: The Times of India
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