India's food products market is nearly ₹25 lakh crore and in the next five years it is expected too shoot over ₹40 lakh crore. In this scenario the role of the food regulator, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is crucial. However, the FSSAI is in a pathetic condition and its record of hauling up erring food products firms is far from satisfactory.

Prevention of obesity requires policies that work. In this Series paper, we propose a new way to understand how food policies could be made to work more effectively for obesity prevention. Our approach draws on evidence from a range of disciplines (psychology, economics, and public health nutrition) to develop a theory of change to understand how food policies work. We focus on one of the key determinants of obesity: diet.

Fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, and processed foods continue to be the major sources of essential trace elements in humans’ diet required for proper body development. However, food products can potentially be contaminated by toxic heavy metals (HMs) from environmental contamination or industrial food processing. The deleterious health implications of essential trace and macro elements’ deficiency and toxic consequences of HMs in humans necessitate proactive monitoring of the essential trace elements and HMs concentrations in the humans diet to ensure public health safety.

A simple and easy direct solid-phase extraction (SPE) method was developed for the analysis of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in olive oil using a dual-layer cartridge containing activated Florisil and a mixture of octadecyl (C18)-bonded and zirconia-coated silicas. Undiluted olive oil was applied directly to the SPE cartridge, and the sample was eluted with acetonitrile solvent. Background in the extract was found to be low enough for either gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) or high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPLC–FLD) analysis.