The Times of India  31.08.2010

MANGALORE: In a view to check food adulteration and prevent artificial ripening of fruits using chemicals, the Mangalore City Corporation has urged the government to sanction a food-testing laboratory to the civic body. A proposal to this effect has been sent to the government last week, MCC commissioner K N Vijayaprakash said, at monthly meeting of civic body here on Monday. Mayor Rajani Dugganna chaired the meeting.

Responding to the observations made by former mayor Shankar Bhat on the issue and dangers posed by such practice, he said MCC has to lean on Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore, or Food and Water Analysis Laboratory, Bangalore, for reports on food items suspected to be adulterated. These labs take long time to submit reports and is therefore prudent for MCC to have its own testing facility, he noted.

Dangers of artificial ripening of fruits and vegetables not only take place at the source, but also at wholesale and retail supply points in the city. Stating that he was fully aware of these developments, Vijayaprakash said the civic body has issued notices to 41 wholesale merchants and retailers and initiated action against them. Vegetables and fruits, especially mango, banana, and sweetlime, are ripened using acetylene gas and carbide.

Vijayaprakash said the corporation has two food inspectors, but lacked the expertise to detect food adulteration on a large scale. The food testing laboratory once set up can also be used to check quality of various kinds of food items consumed by people at hotels, bars, restaurants, eateries as well as quality of water supplied to the people. This laboratory will be a useful tool to check food and water-borne epidemics, he noted.

When opposition members objected to Shankar Bhat's somewhat lengthy preamble to the topic, the mayor pacified them observing that it is a matter of public importance and should not be taken lightly. The commissioner said adulteration of food, especially artificially-ripening of fruits is punishable under section 44 Aa of Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act as well as the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954.

Opposition member Naveen D'Souza advocated the need for the corporation to have its own food and nutrition inspector, who can check instances of food adulteration and urged the mayor to send a proposal to the state government on the issue. In fact, it was Naveen, who in 2007 had first mooted the idea for the MCC to have its own food-testing laboratory, a fact that the commissioner placed on record while replying to the query.