State government to intensify food inspections

In this connection, the Tamil Nadu Food Safety Commissioner was called for a meeting with Chief Minister Edappadi K Palanisamy at the Secretariat on Tuesday. Later in the evening, the Commissioner was called for a meeting with Food Minister R Kamaraj and Labour Minister Nilofer Kabil over the milk adulteration/contamination issue and some stringent action is expected. The state food safety wing will have its work cut out as the central government gazette extraordinary details a huge list of food items which can be contaminated by various hazardous material including tin, cadmium and arsenic giving the allowable portions in parts per million. 

The five-year old Tamil Nadu Food safety unit currently has 470 staffers spread all over the state, against the sanctioned strength of 587. According to Food Safety and Standards Association of India, there are testing labs in Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, Thanjavur, Tirunelveli, and Salem. Of the 2,939 samples collected, 2,873 were analysed of which1,047 samples were found to be adulterated resulting in 64 criminal cases and 486 civil cases being filed. This led to 203 convictions and a penalty of Rs 34.99 lakh is being collected, officials said.