Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 22: Noticing that multi-national company M/s Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd is playing with the health of people by using “sub standard” carbonated water in the beverages, the Additional District Magistrate, Kathua has immediately stopped the distribution of beverages from the main distributors of the company in the district to the retailers.
The Magistrate has even made it clear that in case of failure to deposit the fine imposed under Food Safety and Standard Act within the stipulated time frame operations of the company in the entire district will be completely banned and the beverages under consideration destroyed.
During the past two years Additional District Magistrate, Kathua, who is also Food Safety Adjudicating Officer, received a number of complaints regarding use of misbranded carbonated water and violation of various provisions of Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 by the M/s Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd.
Though some exercise was carried out on these complaints like lifting of samples and getting the same analyzed from the Food Analyst, yet these complaints could not be taken to logical conclusion because of varied reasons. Taking serious note of this delay, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, who recently took over as District Magistrate Kathua, directed for expeditious disposal of the complaints after following the laid down procedure.
Few days back, Additional District Magistrate, G Prasanna Ramaswamy, decided the complaints after hearing the arguments put forth by the prosecution and the respondents. By invoking the powers vested in him by Section 68 of the Food Safety and Standard Act, 2006 and the Gazette Notification of J&K Government, the Additional District Magistrate has imposed penalty of Rs 15 lakh on Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd, Gangyal, IFCA Bottling Ltd New Industrial Estate Area Gangyal, Manager Incharge of IFCA Bottling Ltd, Gangyal, M/s Hindustan Coca Cola Ltd, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh and others under Section 52 of the Food Safety and Standard Act, 2006.
Similarly, Rs 2.50 lakh fine varying between Rs 70,000 to Rs 20,000 has been imposed on six distributors of the Coca Cola company under Section 49 of the Food Safety Act.
The company and its subsidiaries have been directed to immediately take steps to conform their products with provisions of the law and report compliance within two weeks failing which all their operations in Kathua district would be stopped and the pre-packaged food items under consideration would be destroyed.
As immediate action, the District Administration has directed all the distributors of the company to forthwith stop supply of beverages to the retailers and directions have been issued to the Tehsildars and Police Stations to seize the beverages wherever found in the entire district till the company fulfills the conditions laid down by the Food Safety Act for the food business operator.
In his order, the Additional District Magistrate has observed, “the respondent (Coca Cola) was given the chance to contest the report of the Public Food Safety Analyst and go for a second analysis but this opportunity was not availed by the respondents”.
The act of the respondent is that of alleged misbranding, which is governed by Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labeling) Regulations. The Regulations make it very clear that when a pre-packaged food item or beverage contains natural, nature-identical or artificial flavoring substances, it is required to declare the “common name” of the artificial flavor and “class name” of the natural or nature identical flavoring substances, the order said.
Quoting the Supreme Court judgment in Undavilli Nagarathanam and Others Versus Reddi Satyanarayana Murthi and Others, the Additional District Magistrate said, “the food business operator is deemed to have full knowledge of the Act and the consumers have a legal right to know the common name of the artificial flavoring substance in the food product being sold to them”, adding “the case of misbranding can easily be established by a casual perusal of the label declaration on the prepackaged food item as such needs no expert scrutiny”.
According to the sources, the action taken by the Additional District Magistrate would go a long way in stopping M/s Hindustan Coca Cola from selling sub-standard products and ignoring provisions of Food Safety and Standards Act.
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