1. Frozen-and-thawed sardine from Oman is being sold as 'fresh' fish in Kerala markets, potentially posing food safety issues. Sardines can be 3 weeks old by the time they arrive from Oman and are sold after being thawed. 2. A health inspector in Maradu was caught accepting a Rs. 5,000 bribe by vigilance officials to sanction a license for a food export company. 3. 32 students and 5 teachers from a school near Kochi refineries were hospitalized after experiencing vomiting, suffocation, and dizziness from a sulphur dioxide leak.

1. STORAGE TEMPERATURE
AND SHELF LIFE OF FISH
Temperature
(Celsius)
Shelf life
32 1 day
15.5 2.5 days
5.5 6 days
0 2 weeks
-1.6 3-4 weeks
-12 2 months
-17.7 1 year
-23 2 years
-28.8 2+ years
-40 indefinitely
Source: University of Florida, IFAS
THE SHRINKING
STORY OF SARDINES
Locally known as ‘mathi’ or ‘chala’ in
Kerala, this small oily fish was commonly
found on the shores of India, Pakistan,
Yemen, Oman, Iran and United Arab
Emirates. During the period 1950 to 2013,
India has been the major contributor to
the global sardine catch. Sardine from the
Indian waters has contributed 66 to 96%
(average 80%; about 2 lakh tonnes) of the
global oil sardine catch. Pakistan is the
second biggest contributor with an
average catch of 23,000 tonnes, followed
by Oman 11,000 tonnes
INDIAN OIL SARDINES CATCH – OVER THE YEARS
WHAT CAUSES
FISH TO SPOIL?
➤ After the fish dies it immediately begins
to get spoiled due to enzymes & bacteria
➤ Like humans, fish have bacteria living
on their surface and in their gut. These
bacteria will multiply unchecked after the
fish dies and can produce the “fishy” smell
and taste. The rate of bacterial growth
depends on the temperature
➤ Enzymes which help living fish with
digestion, tissue growth and muscle
contraction and relaxation continue to
work after the fish dies. This can
breakdown the flesh and provide food for
bacteria
➤ Oxygen can also affect the quality of
fish. Oxygen reacts with oils in seafood
and can cause the food to become rancid
Source: University of Florida, IFAS
Shenoy Karun
& Sudha Nambudiri | TNN
Kochi: If you believe that the fried sar-
dine, which you are tucking in with its
pocket of delicious eggs was caught from
the sea a day or two ago, then you are
wrong. Chances are high that the ‘fresh
fish’ that you buy from door-to-door ven-
dors or at the local markets could be sev-
eral weeks old and easily fail a Torrymeter
test, a scheme used for assessing the fresh-
ness of fish.
Oil sardines sourced from Oman and
UAE could be as old as up to three weeks
and some of the other fish varieties caught
by local trawling boats could be as old as
one month, when it lands on Kerala shores.
Fish, frozen just after the catch, is being
thawed and sold in the local market falsely
labelled as ‘fresh’, through a network of
local auctioneers, wholesalers and ven-
dors.
Only the fishermen working on the
trawling boats and the distributors who
buy from them know the truth. “The small-
erboatsusuallycomebackwithinfivedays
while the relatively larger ones take 15
days to return. But, the bigger boats, which
are up to 60 ft long, will spend up to one
month in the sea,” said E A Subair, an
agent working in the fishing industry in
Kochi.
It is the same case with imports too – a
relatively new phenomenon. Over the last
one year period, the relatively fat and
‘healthy looking’ Oman sardines, as they
are locally called, had been inundating the
local fish markets. In 2016, from February
22 to September 26, around 177 shipments
of oil sardines from West Asia landed in
Kochi. While 149 shipments originated
from Oman the rest was from United Arab
Emirates as per export-import data. The
total quantity of imports was 9,670 tonnes,
all of which landed at Kochi.
After two weeks on transit in frozen
form and another two or three days on the
local supply network, these Oman-sourced
fish were sold as ‘fresh fish’, rather than
frozen ones.
According to the University of Flori-
da’s Institute of Food and Agricultural
Sciences, post-catch, the internal temper-
atureof fresh,unfrozenfishshouldbekept
as close as zero degree Celsius. With stor-
age temperature going up, the shelf life
could be as low as one day and if kept at
32 degree centigrade, it could be preserved
for more than two years.
“When you freeze the food and thaw
(remove) it there is a change in tempera-
ture, microbial action begins,” said Dr K
V Lalitha, Head Microbiology Fermenta-
tion and Biotechnology divi-
sion, Central Institute
of Fisheries
Technology
(CIFT). Dur-
ing one of the
weekly visits of a
team from Central Marine
Fisheries Research Institute to the
local Kalamukku landing centre,
they observed frozen oil sardines
from Oman being washed in
fresh water mixed with ice and
sent to local markets. “These
re-packed sardines were priced
atRs200andaboveperkgwhichwasmuch
higher than the prices of Rs 100 to Rs 140,
normally got for locally caught oil sar-
dine,” the CMFRI report said.
The Times of India contacted Sea Pride
LLC, an exporting firm based out of Mus-
cat in Oman, whose product was spotted
by the CMFRI team in June 2015 at Kala-
mukku.Whenquestionedabouttheunsafe
and unethical practice of selling thawed
frozen fish as fresh fish, Mohammed
Ameen, the owner of the firm said that he
is unaware of it. “This could have done by
the local dealers due to the demand for
fresh fish. Frozen fish should be sold as
frozen only. Government officials should
strictly monitor this,” he said.
Dr Lalitha of CIFT also confirmed that
the lax health and safety rules in local
markets. "There are no standards for the
imported fish being sold in the local mar-
kets. We need to have a stricter monitoring
and implementation of food safety stand-
ards if we are to ensure that people get to
eat safe food," she said.
So long, and thanks for all the fishFrozen-And-Thawed Sardine From Oman Is Being Sold As ‘Fresh’ Fish
The economics of sardine importsShenoy.Karun@timesgroup.com
Kochi: Sardine is popular
among Malayalis, whose fish
consumption levels are four
times compared to that of the
nationalaverage.Asthesardine
landings came down from 3.99
lakh tonnes in 2012 to a mere
68,431 tonnes in 2015, the retail
prices went up to the range of
Rs 160 – Rs 200 per kg.
While the supply went
down, demand was growing,
which also contributed the rise
in prices. According to the fig-
ures quoted study by Central
Marine Fisheries Research In-
stitute (CMFRI), the monthly
sardineconsumptionof Kerala
is19,000tonnesandtheaverage
monthly per capita consump-
tionis660gms.Withthepopula-
tion going up, the annual de-
mandof sardinesinKeralawill
go up from 2.27 lakh tonnes in
2011 to 3.26 lakh tonnes by 2020,
the study says.
The demand-supply mis-
match is partially being met by
imports from Oman, where the
local prices of sardine is as low
as Rs 30 per kg.
“Kerala is a new market for
us, which was opened during
September–October2015,”said
Mohammed Ameen, owner of
Muscat-based Sea Pride LLC,
which is exporting sardines to
India. Till Kerala market
opened, Ameen had been ex-
porting sardines to Egypt,
Bangladesh, Thailand, Indone-
sia, Malaysia and a very small
quantity to the US. “Kerala’s
consumption levels are high
and hence the volume of con-
sumption is also high. That is
the attraction of Kerala,” he
said over the phone.
The CMFRI had spotted the
productsof SeaPridebeingsold
as fresh fish in June 2015 at
Kalamukkufishlandingcentre.
Databases on foreign trade
show that sardine is being im-
ported to Kerala at prices rang-
ing from Rs 28 – Rs 48 per kg
during last one year period.
The FOB (free-on-board
price - the price at which the
productisloadedontotheship)
priceof sardineinOmanisUS$
450 per tonne.
On top it, there will be the
logistics cost of US$ 70 – US$80
and the import duty. Consider-
ing all these components, the
sardine must hit the local
shores at the rate of Rs 60 per
kg, with the importers bagging
a profit of Rs 40 – Rs 140 per kg.
‘CHEMICALS IN FISH
ARE DIFFICULT TO IDENTIFY’
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Kochi: Fish as a safe food
is best when eaten fresh or
when taken out of a freez-
er, thawed and cooked
without delay.
But with the catches
dwindling, the market is
being flooded with fish
from other coasts and also
supplies delivered through
the cold chain route.
Food safety officials
say that it is very difficult
to identify chemicals
like formalin and ammo-
nia in fish. “You would
have noticed that they
don’t put ice over the
whole fish. Only some part
will have ice. Rest is ex-
posed and this portion gets
decayed fast,” said K V
Shibu, assistant commis-
sioner of food safety.
Officials say that when
it comes to frozen food, the
rule is that the product
should remain in the cold
chain from the point of
packing to delivery.
“When the decay be-
gins, chemicals like ammo-
nia and formalin will be
present in the body of the
fish. Ideally, the customer
should not accept stale
food even if it’s being sold
cheap,” he said.
When you freeze, thaw,
and refreeze an item, the
product quality gets
changed. “There are a lot
of microbes present on the
skin of the fish. They be-
come alive when the item
is exposed, thus triggering
the decay,” said Dr K V
Lalitha, head, microbiolo-
gy fermentation and bio-
technology division, Cen-
tral Institute of Fisheries
Technology (CIFT).
She said that the when
they get fish for testing
from food safety officials,
they look at the chemical,
microbial and sensory pa-
rameters of the food.
2012 2013 2014 2015
3.9 lakh
tonnes
2.1 lakh
tonnes
1.6 lakh
tonnes 68,431
tonnes
KERALA FISHERIES STATISTICS
Fishermen
population
(estimated)
10.18 lakh
Active
fishermen
(FY15)
233,101
State GDP
from fisheries
(FY14)
`6,264.54 Cr
WHEN YOU FREEZE THE FOOD
AND THAW (REMOVE) IT THERE
IS A CHANGE IN TEMPERATURE,
MICROBIAL ACTION BEGINS
— Dr K V Lalitha, HEAD, MICROBIOLOGY FERMENTATION AND
BIOTECHNOLOGY DIVISION, CIFT
Illustration:
Gireesh
Oman Sardines
TOI
Kochi: The Kochi corpora-
tion might be interested in
taking forward a Rs 20-crore
project to construct a new
sewage treatmentplant(STP)
and renovate the existing one
at Elamkulam. But, Kerala
Water Authority (KWA) –
which runs the plant – is not
‘keen on playing the role of an
implementingagency’.
According to KWA, talks
are being held between the lo-
cal body and water authority
to implement the project
planned under Atal Mission
for Rejuvenation and Urban
Transformation (Amrut).
Theplanistoconstructanew
treatmentplanthaving5MLD
(millionlitresperday)capaci-
ty at Elamkulam and to reno-
vate the existing plant which
alsohasa5MLDcapacity.
Expressing disinterest in
theproject,aseniorKWAoffi-
cial said: “Public protests
against road cutting works
for laying pipelines is the ma-
jorreasonforthelackof inter-
est. We have witnessed pro-
tests against sewage treat-
ment plant proposed at Mun-
damveli. In these
circumstances it would be
better for us to not to get in-
volvedinthisplan.”
Meanwhile, officials also
pointed out that a detailed
project report was yet to be
prepared. Moreover, paper-
work for implementing the
project has also not begun.
The existing sewage treat-
ment plant was commis-
sioned in 1950s. Sewage is
pumped to the plant from the
network which covers Ernak-
ulam General Hospital, Mah-
araja’s College, Gandhi Na-
gar, Jawahar Nagar and Mut-
tathil Lane near Kadavan-
thra.
The network covers only a
small area of the city, but sep-
tic waste disposal has turned
outtobeperennialissue.Indi-
cating the lack of an effective
system to treat septic waste,
septage brought in tanker
truckscontinuetobedumped
in public places during night.
Despite public complaints
septage is dumped in the ca-
nal near the STP at Elamku-
lam. Residents of the locality
said though corporation
cleaned up the area, waste
wasagaindepositedatthesite
on Wednesday and Thursday.
“Residentsarehavingatough
time.Asthepracticeof dump-
ingseptageintheareacontin-
ues undisrupted, we have fil-
ed a police complaint,” said
XavierChakkanat,aresident.
Corp moots new sewage plant at
Elamkulam, KWA uninterestedGreeshma.GopalGiri
@timesgroup.com
MORE IN THE OFFING: The sewage treatment plant at Elamkulam
TOI
Kochi: Vigilance and anti-
corruption bureau (VACB)
officials on Thursday arres-
ted a junior heath inspector
with the Maradu municipali-
ty who allegedly demanded
and accepted bribe from a
man for sanctio-
ning licence to
open a food pro-
ducts export
company.
KSNiyas,anativeof Kay-
amkulam, was arrested after
a trap was set by vigilance of-
ficialsonThursdaymorning.
Niyaswastrappedbasedona
complaint filed by Dalson
Varghese, a resident of Kalo-
or.
Vigilance officials said
that Niyas was caught red-
handed in front of the Mara-
du municipal office when he
demanded and accepted Rs
5,000fromDalson.
According to Dalson, Niy-
as had visited the place at
Kundannoor on September
23 when furnishing works of
the office was going on. The
officer had visited the place
without any intimation and
said that a licence from the
municipality was required
before completing furnis-
hingworksof office.
“The officer said that we
wereviolatingthenormsand
could be fined up to Rs 16,000
though the licence fee is just
Rs1,000.Later,theofficersaid
to my manager that the licen-
ce can be granted upon ‘trea-
ting’ him well. I met the offi-
cer at his office the next day
when he said that the licence
canbegivenif hewasoffered
bribe. The officer fixed the
bribeamountasRs5,000inte-
lephonic conversation. The
vigilance officers were con-
vinced to set a trap seeing the
videoof themeetingathisof-
fice and telephonic conversa-
tionrecords,”saidDalson.
After consulting with vi-
gilance officials, Dalson in-
formed Niyas that the bribe
would be handed over on
Thursday. Vigilance team
handed over four Rs 1,000 de-
nomination and two Rs 500
denomination currencies
treated with phenolphthale-
in to hand over to the health
inspector.
Bribery: Health inspector
caught in vigilance trapTIMES NEWS NETWORK
Tripunithura: Around 32
students and five teachers
of Kuzhikkadu Govern-
ment Vocational Higher Se-
condary School, adjacent to
the compound walls borde-
ring BPCL Kochi Refinery
and FACT, were admitted to
various hospitals following
leakage of sulphur dioxide
on Thursday morning.
The students developed
physical discomfort such as
vomiting, suffocation and
dizziness following the lea-
kage around 9.30am.
District medical officer
Dr M K Kuttappan said that
the condition of the child-
ren were stable.
When school authorities
informed the matter to
BPCL officials, the latter sa-
id the foul smell was due to
the transfer of sulphur
dioxide to a chamber from
their plant. “By 10.30am, so-
me of the students started
to faint. Then, the school
authorities filed a compla-
int with Ambalamugal poli-
ce. Police with the help of lo-
cals took the children to ne-
arby hospitals. They were
later shifted to safe places,”
said Shiny K Sankar, princi-
pal of the school.
District collector K Mo-
hammed Y Safirulla conve-
nedameetingof peoples’re-
presentatives, including
district panchayat presi-
dent and other senior offici-
als from Kochi Refinery. Af-
ter identifying a suitable
place, the district admini-
strationwillshifttheschool
to a safer place.
32 students hospitalized
after sulphur dioxide leak
LUCKY ESCAPE: Students of Kuzhikkadu Government VHSS
admitted to a hospital following leakage of sulphur dioxide
TOI
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Kochi: Despite having a huge number of
girl students opting for the engineering
course,thenumberof professionalsisve-
ry less, said Keyana Tennant, program-
me manager for the Women in Enginee-
ring(WiE)wingof Instituteof Electrical
and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). Ten-
nant said that this phenomenon is not
restrictedtothispartof theworld.
Tennant,whowasinKochitointeract
with
stu-
dents of
the lo-
cal chapter of the institute on the diffe-
rent programmes of WiE, said the good
news is that the number of members ha-
ve been increasing, largely driven by the
studentcommunity.“TheWiEmembers-
hip in 2005 was 10,700 and by 2016, it has
swelledto18,480.Thisincreasehappened
overthepast2-3years,”shesaid.
ShesaidthatunlikeintheUSandEu-
rope,itistheRegion10(R10)–whichisIn-
dia – that is registering an increase in
number of women members. “We want
the local groups to get more active and I
find that the initiatives being taken by
thesegroupsaremoreinterestingandin-
novative.Therehavebeeninitiativeslike
drinking water supply for villages and
other such humanitarian interven-
tions,”Tennantsaid.
While the primary membership is
through IEEE, all girls and women engi-
neers can become members of the WiE.
IEEE-WiE is one of the largest interna-
tional professional organizations that
promotes women engineers and scien-
tists, while inspiring girls to follow their
academic interests in engineering. “One
of thecoreissuesisthedropoutrateinin
theprofession,”shesaid.
WiEhasscholarshipprogrammesfor
students to study in some of the US colle-
ges.Theyalsogivegrantstogroupsinter-
ested in conducting events. “We have a
support of $400 if the proposal is sent
through the chairman of the group. We
don’t provide individual funding,” she
said.
Tennant said that the organization
aims to recognize outstanding achieve-
mentsof womeninelectricalandelectro-
nics engineering through IEEE Award
nominations.“Wepushforwomeninlea-
dershiprolesinIEEEgovernance.Idon’t
this there’s much gender issues in this
part of the world, but in many countries,
gender discrimination is a major pro-
blemforwomenprofessionals.”
Driving more women into engineering
Sudha.Nambudiri@timesgroup.com
Keyana Tennant, programme manager for
WiE wing of Institute of Electrical and
Electronic Engineers
TOI
PASSING
THROUGH
Kochi: District health de-
partment officials will sub-
mit the report filed by medi-
cal board – which looked into
the allegation of medical
negligence that led to the de-
ath of Shamna Thasneem, a
second-year MBBS student
of Government Medical Col-
lege, Ernakulam– to the city
police.
Shamna, who hailed from
Mattannur in Kannur, had
died after an injection was
administered on her at the
Medical College on July18.
Shamna’s parents alle-
gedthatshediedduetomedi-
calnegligence.“Themedical
board completed the inquiry
in this case. We will submit
the report to the city police
commissioner on Friday,”
saidDMODrMKKuttappan.
It is learnt that the medi-
cal board has found negli-
gence on the part of authori-
ties in providing proper tre-
atment to Shamna on time.
Meanwhile, parents of
Shamna are planning to sub-
mit a complaint with state
human rights commission
challenging the apathy on
the part of the authorities in
probing the case and taking
proper action against the
culprits.
Earlier, Dr K Sreekuma-
ri, joint director of medical
education, had conducted
inspections into the inci-
dent. Though Sreekumari
submitted a detailed report
to the state government, the
report has not been released
so far.
Man held for theft: The
North Paravoor police on
Thursday arrested a 30-year-
old man who allegedly broke
intoabeveragescorporation
outlet to steal Indian-made
foreign liquor worth Rs
30,000 on 23 September, 2016.
The accused, Muhammed
Zahir, was presented before
the court and remanded in
judicial custody.
Shamna Case:
Med board to
submit report
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
TIMES CITYTHE TIMES OF INDIA, KOCHI | FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2016
HC ASKS STATE GOVERNMENT TO TAKE IMMEDIATE
STEPS TO ASSIGN LAND TO TRIBESPEOPLE | P4
MEDICAL FEE ISSUE: CONGRESS-LED OPPOSITION
WALKS OUT OF ASSEMBLY FOR THE THIRD DAY | P7