Punjab Food Safety Commissioner on Tuesday issued strict directions against pasting of stickers directly on fruits and vegetables. For the same, the Commissioner Kahan Singh Pannu has shot off a communiqué to all the Food Safety Teams across the state directing them to spread awareness amongst traders that fruits and vegetables should not be sold in the market with stickers pasted on them.
The Food Safety Teams have been directed to check the sale of fruits and vegetables with stickers as well as make the traders aware of the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, according to which no food business operator shall store, sell or distribute any article of food which is unsafe, said Pannu.
Pannu said that the teams have also been advised to inform the traders that “in case a sticker is must to provide relevant information like grade, price or barcode as in case of sales in supermarkets, stickers or labels should not be put directly on fruits and vegetables rather a functional barrier like a safe transparent thin film may be used and sticker should be pasted on them. The ink used on the stickers must be food grade quality and must not migrate into food”.
Giving a word of caution to the consumers, Pannu said that fruits and vegetables with stickers are not necessarily of premium quality, and consumers must check the quality before buying them.
Pannu said that the use of stickers on food products, providing information on traceability, grades, price etc, is a common practice across the globe. “But, a lot of times these stickers are applied directly on food sources such as on fruits and vegetables. Apples, kiwis, mangoes, oranges, banana, pears and bell peppers are some common fruits and vegetables which have stickers applied directly on the surfaces,” he said.
“However, it is observed that in Punjab, traders use stickers to make their product look premium or sometimes to hide any defect on the product. ‘Tested Ok’, ‘Good Quality’, or ‘Name of Product’ are some common terms mentioned on the stickers which do not have any significance at all,” said Pannu pointing that a wide variety of adhesives are used on these stickers to paste them effectively, and its safety is not known. Studies show that substances like surfactants used in adhesives are toxic, he added.
Pannu pointed that people generally remove stickers from fruits or vegetables and consume without thinking about residues of adhesives present on them. He added that heat from sunlight on fresh fruits and vegetables sold in open market also increase the migration of harmful chemicals from adhesives into fruits.
Reiterating the FSSAI advisory issued in this context, Pannu said that stickers should be removed before consumption of fruits and vegetables. “To prevent consuming residues of adhesives, consumers must peel or cut the skin of fruits and vegetables where the sticker was applied and wash the fruits and vegetables properly with water before consumption,” he said.