If you think packaged water is safe to consume, think again!.

Suffering staff crunch, officials try to meet February 2014 deadline for registrations

With a 60 per cent shortage in the number of food safety officers, implementation of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2011, has become a problem in Karnataka. Unable to meet the targets of registrations of and issuance of licence to firms/units under the new Act, the deadline has been extended twice.
Officials of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) in the State are now concentrating on registering and issuance of licences to firms and units in the business of manufacturing, transporting, processing, storing and selling easily perishable items (milk, vegetables, ice cream et al) to bring them under the ambit of the new rules, on a priority basis.

New Delhi: Your neighbourhood sweetmeat shop may soon have to comply with stricter quality standards while preparing its rasgullas, barfis and snacks, with India’s food safety authority planning to

The move comes in the wake of severe water shortage across the State

The Food Safety Commissioner, Biju Prabhakar, has issued a special set of guidelines to ensure the supply of drinking water through tanker lorries in the district. The guidelines were issued in the wake of a severe shortage of drinking water in various parts of the State. According to an official release issued here on Thursday, the norms make it mandatory for tanker lorries to possess a Food Business Operator (FBO) license under the Food Safety and Standard (Licensing and Registration of Food Business) Regulations, 2011.

Pune:The country’s food safety and standards regulator has allowed use of higher levels of caffeine in energy drinks. The set standard of 145 parts per million (ppm) of caffeine has been relaxed up to 320 ppm for energy drinks, said Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) officials on Thursday.

The regulator, however, has stipulated that manufacturers infusing energy drinks with higher amounts of caffeine will have to print warnings such as-—‘caffeinated beverage’, ‘use not more than two cans a day’, ‘ingredients of this product consumed through other sources may also be kept in view’, ‘not recommended for children, pregnant and lactating women’, ‘not for persons sensitive to caffeine,’ and ‘caffeine consumed through this and other sources not to exceed 160 mg per day’—prominently on the label of the energy drink products.

Kochi: The wait of the public for quality food and hygiene in restaurants and eateries will continue with the deadline for registering them under the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 extended by a year.

Following a request from the state government, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has extended the last date of registration to February 4, 2014. The deadline set for the same had expired on February 4. The authority had given a six-month transitory period for the act to come into force from the earlier Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, which expired in August 2012.

Food companies say the move will delay new product development and innovation

Probiotic ice-cream, digestive biscuits or lowsugar jams may be flying off retail shelves, but food companies are no longer being allowed to sell new products without taking approvals from the government-promoted Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). According to a new and modified FSSAI advisory issued to all food companies last month, any new or existing product which is ‘proprietary’ – in other words not classified in the food act – will need to follow a regulatory ‘new product approval’ guideline, as laid down by the FSSAI.

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India had standards regulating 350 food commodities and plans were afoot to bring in more commodities under the purview of the regulating body, according to chairman of FSSAI K Chandramouli.

Speaking during the launch programme of ‘Food Safety for all’, a mass contact education programme on food safety, standards and unsafe food, Chandramouli said that FSSAI was planning to increase the list of food commodities so that it corresponded to international level.

New Delhi: Food retail outlets and restaurants are busy revisiting their working models with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) cracking the whip to ensure stricter food safet

Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) is planning to replicate the Gujarat model to ensure street food safety in eight cities including Bhubaneshwar, Hyderabad, Delhi, Lucknow, Kolkata among others.

This apart, a senior official of FSSAI said here on Thursday that of the Rs 4,500 crore sanctioned by the Centre under the 12th Five Year Plan, 70 per cent would be given to states to develop infrastructure facilities which includes setting up of food testing laboratories.