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Sausages in a soup
With reports of alleged unhygienic food being found on supermarket shelves and in freezers, are food authorities doing the job required of them? Kumudini Hettiarachchi reports
Tantalizing advertisements targeting mainly children. Sizzling sausages in all shapes and sizes……but in recent times much controversy about quality.
Are the sausages sold in the market of low quality? Are they contaminated? This is what the health and food authorities need to ascertain urgently.
Sausages and their quality have come into focus with the latest incident taking place about 10 days ago, where worms were allegedly found in a packet of sausages bought from a leading supermarket in Borella.

"If consumers in the city find something wrong with a food product, they usually inform the Colombo Municipal Council's Public Health Department. Then our food inspectors go to the place about which there has been a complaint, collect samples, seal them and depending on the problem send them to the relevant institutions for checking," says Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Pradeep Kariyawasam who is the food authority for the city of Colombo. "The samples are then formally handed over and a report awaited. If the report indicates there is contamination - worms, product was spoilt or expired and labelling was in violation of the rules - then we would prosecute the offender."
In the Borella case, The Sunday Times understands that the person who found the sausages allegedly infected with worms sent the sample directly to the Medical Research Institute (MRI). "When we were informed by the MRI, the Food Inspectors went to the supermarket and took samples from the same batch and followed the procedure of sealing and formally handing over to the MRI," explained Dr. Kariyawasam. (The hotline at the CMC for consumer complaints in the city is: 2676161 during working hours.)

In this incident, three samples had been taken, with two being sent to the MRI and the City Analyst and the third being handed over to the supermarket itself to do its own testing.

The Sunday Times learns that there are no legal standards for sausages but currently regulations are being formulated. However, there are certain specifications set down by the Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI).
"The requirements cover hygienic storage, physical appearance and chemical content," says Colombo City Analyst R.M.G.B. Rajanayake. "We check for quality whether it is spoilt or not, whether there are undesirable substances and whether they are contaminated."

Adds Dr. Kariyawasam, "Random checks are very important to ensure that those who produce or manufacture food products, packet them, transport them and sell them keep to the required standard. The Food Act covers all these groups."

But, laments a food expert in Colombo who declined to be identified, the fines are so small that big companies practically get away scot-free. The maximum fine for such violations is just Rs. 10,000, it is learnt. "So the big firms pay up, because it is peanuts for them and go back to violating the rules," he said.
What of the areas outside Colombo city?

"There are routine inspections but raids are conducted when a complaint is made," explains Dr. C.K. Shanmugarajah, Director of the Central Food Control Administration. "The constraint, however, is that there aren't enough labs to conduct analysis."

The Central Food Control Administration, dealing with policy and regulation, is the main body at national level while at district level there are Deputy Provincial Directors and Food and Drug Inspectors. The divisional level has two categories - Municipal Councils with their own Medical Officers of Health (MOHs), Food Inspectors and Public Health Inspectors (PHIs) and the other local authorities which have Health Ministry MOHs and PHIs working in those areas.

The authorized officers for the implementation and enforcement of the food law are Food and Drug Inspectors, MOHs and PHIs. They carry out surveillance, inspections, sampling and prosecutions under the Food Act, explains Dr. Shanmugarajah. "All testing of food products is carried out at the Government Analyst's Department, the food labs in Anuradhapura and Kalutara and by the City Analysts based in Colombo and Kandy Municipalities. The MRI does the microbiological work."

Impressive rules and personnel in place - all to ensure that the men, women and children of Sri Lanka get the best food possible with quality assured.
What of the reality? The authorities need to look closely whether routine checks and also raids on food factories, supermarkets, tea boutiques or five-star hotels to name a few take place regularly.

Are Food Inspectors, MOHs and PHIs doing their job well or are their palms being greased in various ways ranging from bribes, to free liquor to free meals for families, so that they turn a blind eye to violations?
This is all the public asks of the government.

“Our products are hygienically made and conform to standards”
The first packet of sausages may have been open for sometime, otherwise maggots could not form in them, says the Chief Executive Officer for the food section of one of the largest conglomerates in the country now embroiled in the alleged worms-in-sausage controversy.

"Maggots are from flies and in our process, where quality is checked at every point it is more or less impossible for it to have happened in the factory. The temperature at which we handle the products which are frozen won’t allow such contamination,” he says.

By 1997 we got ISO 9001 covering all plants which is a certification for systems but includes basic food safety precautions. Then four years ago we got the HACCP - Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point - award, a food safety certification and a year later the SLSI. Our standards in sausage production are similar or higher to European standards and are based on the British standards. All batches are inspected physically, chemically and microbiologically in our labs while random checks are also carried out. All products are vacuum packed, he said.

According to him the raw material for poultry products is imported from world renowned suppliers in Australia, Belgium and Brazil and also local suppliers inspected by them, who have got the HACCP. Pork is 100% local and got from contracted farmers, unless there is a shortage. The beef, a small share of the industry, is also from local farmers. "A consultant veterinarian and trained staff check the products," he assures.

Adds another senior person, "Top food chains, hotel chains and airlines are using our products. We are considered to be equal or superior to international brands."

Are inedible parts ground into sausages? "No," says this Senior Vice President of the group. "Boneless chicken of prime quality like thigh meat, leg meat and trimmings is used and the SLSI requirements are stringently followed. SLSI standards require a minimum of 60% meat content.We have more in our sausages.

“We are passionate about what we do and even the union leaders would pinpoint if there is a problem. The sausage is not the devil - it is a good way to get wholesome meat into you." “We have tested the batch in question and it has tested negative for worms,” another company source said.

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