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The government should 'carefully regulate' sugar content in infant food products as well as conduct a minimum number of annual inspections, a Parliamentary panel said on Thursday. The raft of suggestions from the panel comes against the backdrop of concerns in certain quarters about the quality and sugar content in infant food products, which are generally considered as a supplement to breast milk. The committee has asked the government to conduct periodic scientific review of the sugar threshold limit in infant nutrition. It also directed the food regulator to accord 'priority enforcement status' for infant and baby food products, with a defined minimum percentage of annual inspections and sampling reserved for this segment. A Standing Committee on Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has presented a report on 'Regulation of Packaged Commodities with Specific Reference to Sugar Content in Baby Products and other Food Products' in Parliament. "The Committee note that in
The battle over West Bengal's political future may have ended, but one of the assembly poll campaign's most emotive themes has resurfaced in school kitchens. The BJP government's decision to engage ISKCON to provide cooked mid-day meals in schools under the Kolkata Municipal Corporation area and replace eggs with vegetarian alternatives has reopened a wider debate over nutrition, culture and identity. The move revived memories of the poll-season clash when fish became a political symbol, and the TMC accused the BJP of seeking to impose a vegetarian cultural template on West Bengal. Presenting the state's first budget after the BJP's victory in the assembly polls, Finance Minister Swapan Dasgupta announced that the material cost for primary school mid-day meals would be increased from Rs 6.78 to Rs 10 per student and that ISKCON would be entrusted with supplying cooked meals under a pilot project in the KMC area. The enhanced allocation was welcomed across the political spectrum. Bu
Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi will inaugurate a new chemical laboratory at the National Test House in Ghaziabad on September 10, as the country seeks to strengthen quality testing capabilities across various industries. The state-of-the-art facility will test packaged drinking water, natural mineral water, food packaging materials, and construction materials, including cement and metals, according to an official statement. The laboratory has received accreditation from the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) under ISO/IEC 17025:2017 standards and holds approvals from the Bureau of Indian Standards, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, and under the Fertilizer Control Order of 1985. Equipment includes atomic absorption spectrometers, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry systems, and high-performance liquid chromatography instruments to conduct sophisticated analyses across diverse sectors, the Food and Consumer ...