Vijay Sardana Online

FSSAI gets Three Months to frame Junk Food Guidelines The Delhi High Court on Friday granted three months time to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to frame and enforce guidelines for making available wholesome, nutritious and hygienic food to school children and restricting the sale of junk food in and around schools. The Court allowed an application of FSSAI seeking extension of time following its March 17 judgment by which it had directed regulation of junk food consumption among school children through restrictions on the sale of foods high in fat, salt and sugar in and around schools. A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath, asked FSSAI to create regulations within the time period. The Court had earlier accepted draft guidelines for restriction on junk food. The Court had also directed the Central Board of Secondary Education to consider including compliance with the guidelines as a condition...

The National Agriculture Market Is A Big-Bang Reform – But Can The Government Pull It Off? If the government manages to overcome some of the hurdles and create an efficient and transparent national agriculture market, it will be the biggest political victory and economic reform at the grassroots level of any government.   – A lot of rural local political leaders and political agents are entrenched in APMCs and draw funding/support from it.   – The current agricultural trading system, with large amounts of cash transactions, is a major generator of black money. The government will need a lot of political will to abolish cash transactions in agriculture commodities.   – If the government succeeds it will be the biggest reform for the benefit of rural population and will be the biggest driver in investment in rural India.   A market is ‘an actual or nominal place where forces of demand and supply operate, and where buyers and sellers interact (direc...

Why online stores are allowed to sell defective medical devices? Virtually every online store is selling medical devices. I was planning to buy one Blood pressure instrument for home. before placing the order I wanted to know how to select a good BP monitoring device for home. When I started looking for good BP devices, I landed at the website of American Heart Association (AHA).   AHA website clearly indicates that all instruments are not recommended and can give misleading readings. Good and recommended BP monitors list is available at  http://www.dableducational.org/sphygmomanometers/devices_2_sbpm.html#ArmTable When I tried to buy recommended models in India, it was shocking to note that none of the model which is sold in India mainly on website are recommended. It means they are prone to mislead the user and may create health risk.  Now the bigger question is : 1. Who is monitoring the quality of medical devices sold in ...

How and why food companies by-pass food laws? Recently many food related scandals have emerged in food world related to Big Brands and Big MNCs. Issues related Horse meat, stale meat, melamine, wrong labeling, etc. are common. It means it is a global  phenomenon, so Indian consumers have to remain vigilant.  I am not sure how much and what authorities can do, because till date they are not able to develop a food safety authority on which stakeholders can trust.  The biggest question is with all the might of knowledge and resources why these companies are on the wrong side of the law? There can be only two reasons: 1. Either their quality control systems and control of supply chain is very weak and their vendors are smart and able to supply them inferior materials and paid for the same by these big brands? 2. Another option is there is unwritten understand between buyers and suppliers to mix the ingredients and they will look the othe...

Why no unsafe food recall and no unsafe food data and deaths due to Unsafe Food in India? WHO says Unsafe Food Kills Hundreds of Thousands (You or loved one can be Next in line, because Food Safety Authority not keen to withdraw unsafe foods from shops) How many of us wants to die because of food poisoning?  Let me change the language, how many of us will buy a food which is unsafe? What is your expectation from enforcement departments when you hear food poisoning cases? In advance of World Health Day (April 7), the World Health Organization is urging governments to enact robust food safety systems to protect people from contaminated foods that can kill them. People have to eat to live, but the World Health Organization warns what you eat can kill you. Thanks to globalization, a vast variety of foods in and out of season now are available to people around the world. Unfortunately, the WHO says food can become contaminated with harmful bac...

 How to Implement High Court Order on Junk Foods in Schools? Health of kids is the utmost concern of any society and its future. There is debate in the society whether to ban junk foods or not? Should we debate this point? My question to the junk food manufactures and their shareholders and employees is – what should be the diet of your own kid – junk food or smart snacks? What they should eat, when they are in school or out of home or even at home? Are you keen to play with their health to save your own job? Is health of your kids trade-able commodities - to make profit by someone else at the cost of health of your kids? If your answer is in favor of health of your kids like every concerned parents, in that case in place of arguing and resisting demand for good food for kids, you must spend time and energy to upgrade the products in the interest of kids of any society. When Junk food manufactures can follow guidelines in US, why they can’t follow in Ind...