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Issues of Food Safety Number 36/December 2008

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Issues of Food Safety Number 36/December 2008 Food for Thought: Factsheet Issues of Food Safety Number 36/December 2008 he Ministry of Food Processing Apart from chemical contamination of TIndustries, Government of India, food from various sources such as has declared the year 2008-09 as 'Food industries, vehicles, pesticides and Safety and Quality Year'. fertilizers, pollution resulting from Previously in 2006 the Food Safety and growing of vegetables in degraded Standards Act 2006 was introduced to environmental conditions in peri-urban give more importance to the safety zones also affect food safety. This is standards. coupled with further pollution from vehicles and industries during marketing. "Food safety" implies absence or acceptable and safe levels of contami- The common sources include presence of nants, adulterants, naturally occurring heavy metals, pesticides, preservatives, toxins or any other substance that may colouring agents and other additives and make food injurious to health on an acute adulterants in food. or chronic basis. Heavy Metals Sources of Food Contamination: Presence of heavy metals in food has AT A GLANCE How Safe is your food? become a burning issue in recent years because of their potential accumulation We are what we eat. Our nutritional u The Ministry of Food in biosystems through contaminated status, health, physical and mental Processing Industries, water, soil and air.1 faculties depend on the food we eat and GOI, has declared 2008-09 how we eat it. The toxic metal content of the food is as Food Safety and Quality influenced by many factors ranging from Food contamination can take place at Year. the environmental condition during various stages of the food chain. From growth to post harvest handling, u Food Safety implies ab- farm to table. processing, preparation and cooking sence or safe levels of techniques. Metal content increases in various kinds of conta- 1Lokeshwari, 2006 some commodities grown in contami- minants. u Sources of food contami- Heavy Metals Contamination nation include harmful chemicals, heavy metals, pesticides, preservatives, colouring agents, addi- tives, adult-erants etc. u Food Contamination leads to life-threatening dise- ases and is a major cause of health hazard especially in developing countries. u India needs to do a lot in terms of effective imple- mentation of the existing laws to deal with the, menace of unsafe food. nated soils or atmosphere. Metals used India uses about 30,000 tons of pesticides a transport or holding of such food results, Legal Provisions in food processing equipment or food- year, more than 60% of it on food crops. or may be reasonably expected to result Types of food additives packaging material may contribute to There are in fact legal provisions in India to Use of excessive pesticides contaminates (directly or indirectly), in it or its by- The different types of food additives food contamination. However, post curb the menace of toxins such as heavy soil, water and finally enters the food chain products becoming a component of or and their uses include: harvesting handling steps such as washing metals in food. and contaminates the food produced. otherwise affecting the characteristics of • Anti-caking agents–stop generally removes metal contaminants if Section 20 of the Food Safety and About 20% of Indian food products such foods. The term does not include ingredients from becoming contamination is through air. Cooking Standards Act-2006 of India states that contain pesticide residues above the contaminants or substances added to lumpy. also has the ability to reduce metal content, “No article of food shall contain any tolerance level compared to only 2% food for maintaining or improving 4 although some foods can absorb metals if contaminant, naturally occurring toxic globally. No detectable residues are found nutritional qualities. • Antioxidants–prevent foods 2 the cooking water is contaminated. substances or toxins or hormone or heavy in only 49% Indian food products from oxidizing, or going rancid. 3 metals in excess of such quantities as may compared to 80% globally. • Artificial sweeteners– increase Impact of heavy metals be specified by regulations”. the sweetness. Heavy metals are dan-gerous because they Impacts of Pesticides • Emulsifiers– stop fats from tend to bioaccumulate. Pesticides are widely used throughout clotting together. Pesticides (2) No insecticide shall be used directly on the world in agriculture to protect • Food acids– maintain the right Bioaccumulation means an increase in Pesticides are a article of food except fumigants registered crops but they pose significant health acid level. the concentration of a chemical in a group of chemicals and approved under the Insecticides Act, problems besides commonly contami- biological organism over time, compared designed to control 1968. Explanation. -For the purposes of • Colours– enhance or add nating soil, air and water. The high-risk to the che-mical's concentration in the weeds, diseases, in- this section, - colour. environment. Lead and cadmium are sects, fungi or other groups exposed to pesticides include the (1) "Pesticide residue" means any specified • Humectants– keep foods moist. most common heavy metals, which are pests on crops, land- production workers, formulators, substance in food resulting from the use • Flavours– add flavour. contaminated through food. Long-term scape or animals. The sprayers, mixers, loaders and agricultural of a pesticide and includes any derivatives exposure of lead leads to acute or chronic most commonly used pesticides are farm workers. • Flavour enhancers– increase the of a pesticide, such as conversion damage to the nervous system on humans. insecticides (to control insects), fungicides power of a flavour. Spraying weeds products, metabolites, reaction products High exposure can lead to obstructive (to control fungi) and herbicides (to • Mineral salts– enhance texture. and impurities considered to be of lung disease and has been linked to lung control weeds). The world has seen toxicological significance and also • Preservatives– stop microbes cancer, and damage to human's respiratory enormous rise of pesticides uses for includes such residues coming into food from multiplying and spoiling systems, while long-term exposure in agricultural purposes to enhance the from environment. the food. cadmium is associated with renal food production and feed the population dysfunction. of the world. Similarly Rule – 65 (Para-XIV) of the • Thickeners– enhance texture. Prevention of the Food Adulteration rule • Stabilisers– maintains 1955 has the provision on the restrictive uniformity of food dispersion. use of pesticides (insecticides) where as Some additives have been used for Deposition of Inorganic Mercury in Sea Food centuries; for example, preserving food by • Flour treatment– improves Rule 65 (2) has also stated that the baking quality. insecticides content shall not exceed the pickling (with vinegar), salting, as with The United Nations Environment tolerance limit prescribed for the food bacon, preserving sweets or using sulphur • Glazing agent– improves appea- Program estimates accidental pesticide items mentioned below. dioxide as in some wines. rance and can protect food. poisoning causing 20,000 deaths and 1 • Propellants– help propel food The prescribed Acceptable Daily Intake In the past 30 years, however, with the million cases of illness per year worldwide. advent of processed foods, there has been a from a container. Pesticides have been implicated in human (ADI) and Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) for India is being determined based massive explosion in the chemical studies with leukemia, lymphoma, aplastic adulteration of foods with additives. In anemia, soft tissue sarcoma and cancers of on the recommendation of the Codex Committee on Pesticides Residues several cases, artificial food additives have the breast, brain, prostate, testis and been linked with cancer, digestive ovaries. The International Agency for (CCPR) a subsidiary body of the Codex Alimentarius Commission. problems, and neurological conditions Research on Cancer has found "sufficient" such as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). evidence of carcinogenic potentiality in They can be also linked with diseases like most of the pesticides beyond the Food additives heart disease, obesity, rapid heartbeat and threshold limit. Food additive means any substance not more. Most food additives are tested in normally consumed as a food by itself isolation rather than in combination with Legal provisions and not normally used as a typical other additives. The long-term effects of ingredient of the food, whether or not it consuming a combination of different Section 21: (1) of the Food Safety and has nutritive value, the intentional additives are currently unknown. Some Standards Act-2006 states that no article of addition of which to food for a people are sensitive to particular food food shall contain insecticides or pesticides technological (including organoleptic) additives and may have reactions like hives residues, veterinary drugs residues, anti- purpose in the manufacture, processing, or diarrhoea. This doesn't mean that all biotic residues, solvent residues, pharma- preparation, treatment, packaging, foods containing additives need to be 2Effects of processing on heavy metals content of fodd, Morgan JN, U.S. Environment Protection Agency, cological active substances and micro- automatically treated with suspicion. National Exposure Research Laboratory, Cincinnati, Ohio 45268, USA. biological counts
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