Nagpur: Following a report posted by Nagpur Today titled “Beware! Unclean roadside sugarcane juice may pose health risks” the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has cracked a whip against vendors using unhygienic ice in fruit juices, lassi, kulfis and cold beverages amid rising customers with climbing mercury. The FDA is set to undertake a drive in April against such vendors. The decision came shortly after a meeting of the District Food Safety and Nutrition Committee, chaired by the Nagpur District Collector.
The FDA has directed ice manufacturers to use indigo tints for ice made from non-potable water. The blue colour will indicate that the ice is not meant for consumption. Ice that can be consumed will have no colour. FDA will ask cold beverage vendors to only use ice made from potable water.
Gold Rate
Tuesday 21 Jan. 2025
According to the FDA Assistant Commissioner Abhay Deshpande, random samples of vendors’ ices will be collected and sent to government analysts to test the water contents. The drive will include both action and awareness regarding usage of consumable and non-consumable ice by vendors, said Deshpande, adding that poor quality ice can lead to serious health hazards.
Nagpur Today had reported that the thirst-quenching and energy providing ganna raas (sugarcane juice) may pose a health risk if consumed unclean. A caution was sounded by experts regarding the consumption of roadside sugarcane and other juices whose sales jump with rise in temperature. Threats from unhygienic food and beverages include hepatitis A, E and other gastrointestinal complications which become common in summer.
The FDA Assistant Commissioner also said camps will be held for roadside vendors to urge them to get food licence from FDA. As per the instruction of the District Collector, we will urge the food vendors to approach FDA for seeking food licences before they can continue selling eatables to consumers, he said.
As a part of the healthy food standards drive, Deshpande said the food business operators using more than 50 litres of oil everyday have been asked to maintain records of their usage and hand over the excess oil to private agencies for conversion into bio-diesels. FDA will also conduct a drive with police against tobacco sellers within 100 metres of educational institutes, following instructions from the collector.
The District Collector, R Vimala, had recently directed the vendors selling fruit juice, cold drinks, lassi, sharbat etc during summer to take food licence, registration number under Food Safety and Standards Act from FDA. FDA should take strict action against the traders violating the norms of FSSA, directed the District Collector, R Vimala.
