Looking to buy ice to serve chilled drinks at the summer party Beware! Suppliers of ice can give you contaminated ice cubes and still get away with it. A trader who was recently booked for supplying contaminated ice walked free by arguing his case successfully in the AP High Court. Holding the view that ice blocks do not fall within the definition of an article of food or drink, Justice G Bhavani Prasad of the high court quashed a criminal case filed against an icemaker of Adoni in Kurnool district. Food inspector of Adoni had booked a case under provisions of Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954, against local ice trader B V R Reddy on the ground that the ice samples collected from the trader were contaminated. The trader challenged the case in the high court and sought a direction from the court for quashing the case.Arguing his case,senior counsel C Padmanabha Reddy told the court that section 2(v) of the Act excluded water from the definition of food. Mere conversion of water into ice will not make it food and hence the Act cannot be applied on the petitioner. If some ingredients are added to ice for making it an ice candy, then it can be considered as food, he said. The petitioner brought to the notice of the court an order of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court which acquitted an accused in a similar case on the ground that the chemical composition of water and ice are one and the same.
Justice Bhavani Prasad, while quashing the criminal case against the petitioner in the present case,ruled that preponderance of judicial opinion is that mere conversion of water into ice without adding anything to it will not bring ice within the purview of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act. This is in view of the specific exclusion of water from the definition of food under section 2(v) of the Act, the judge said.
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(source-toi)
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