10/01/2022 (The Times Of India Online) - Nagpur: The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has urged eight city hotels — where edible oil consumption is more than 50 litres per day — to hand over their excess edible used oils for bio-diesel recycling to a designated company empanelled with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). FDA sources said that the hotels have been asked to ensure their excess used oil is sent for recycling through a Mumbai company. The measure was undertaken as a part of the ‘Eat Right’ campaign initiated last year which aimed to enforce quality standards of food and eatables being sold at food joints, outlets, eatries and hotels. FDA assistant commissioner Abhay Deshpande said his team visited around 85 eatries and hotels to conduct on-the-spot tests of the cooking oil with total polar material (TPM) count meter. ‘The exercise to check the cooking oil with the TPM meter was to ensure that they were not reused to the extent of becoming hazardous for health,” he said. Through no violations (TPM count more than 25) were found, the hotels and eatries were suggested to follow fair practices by discarding overused oils,” Deshpande added. As part of the Eat Right campaign, FDA has inspected 1,113 premises related to food business in the city in the last few months. “Around 881 samples were collected from 1,131 food establishments and sent for testing at the government laboratory. The results are awaited. Actions would be initiated as per the degree of violations,”said Deshpande who is working under the supervision of FDA joint commissioner Suresh Annapure. As a part of the campaign, FDA has also conducted online training of the 511 anganwadi sevikas (attendants) who prepared food for children. FDA has also collected 73 samples of loose edible oil available in the market and sent them for testing. Around 18,386 kg loose oil worth Rs2,716,673, was seized during the action last year. “One of the samples collected has been found to be sub-standard by the government analyst, which would now be adjudicated, “said Deshpande. FDA had conducted pre-audit of cleanliness and hygiene at the food outlets, canteens and cafeteria at around 14 campuses, including those of hospitals, last year. Food safety training and certification (FoSTaC) training, which is part of FSSAI, has been provided to the chefs, canteen supervisors and managers of those 14 premises, said an FDA officials.