Ask Your Food Safety Queries – Here & Now!

‘2 Minute Noodles- To eat or not’?
‘Milk – To boil or not’?
‘Juices – To drink or not’?

…..these and for other such dilemmas, I invite all your quires & questions – doubts & confusions on food safety, healthy eating habits and ways to keep the nutrition of your food intact!

Apart from being a healthcare professional, medical content writer and lifestyle blogger, I am also a Safe Food Ambassador for Tetra Pak and a certified Nutrition Quotient expert.

Ask here or mail at saniashariq@gmail.com!

I will be glad to answer.

Dr. Sania Siddiqui

Safe Food Ambassador, Tetra Pak

Some Recently Asked Questions

Rekha Pandey Mishra My daughter is poor eater help me

Sania Siddiqui Firstly understand do not compare your eating habits and quantity with your child. They would anyways eat much lesser.
Do not force them to eat the staple – roti, chawal or sabzi.
Meet the requirement of basic food components by giving it in other interesting forms like may be a double cheese pizza with veggies on a wheat base or green leafy vegetables kneaded in the poori dough!
Rest assured, 80% of kids are picky eaters but then gradually as they grow, their diet and eating habits improve.

Priyanka Saxena Srivastava Exactly Maggi to ” eat or not to eat”…. whats your take on it…? and how about oat and wheat maggi , are they better than maida masala maggi?

Sania Siddiqui Maggi has been a comfort and staple food in our households for decades. The recent debacle has definitely stirred our kitchens. Since the matter is still under investigation and results are awaited from internationally accredited labs, to alleviate your anxiety read this explanation from Nestle – “We use hydolysed groundnut protein, onion powder and wheat flour to make Maggi Noodles, which contain glutamate. We believe that the authorities’ tests may have detected glutamate, which occurs naturally in many foods.” It also said that in its routine tests done over the years, it never found Maggi containing more than 0.03 ppm of lead, adding that the batch that was tested was an old one (February 2014).”

So unless the matter gets a clean chit, resort to other quick fixes to curb your ‘choti wali bhook’.

Shabana Firdaus When u crave fr a chilled soft drink, is frooti or any other mango drink a better option than colas ? Specially when u r not at home…

Sania Siddiqui Fruit drink and cola are like ‘evil twins’. None hold much of nutritional value but merely heaps of sugar (200 ml contains 6-8 spoons of sugar, equivalent to the person’s whole day’s requirement of sugar). So having both can be unhealthy.
Cold fresh lime soda, jal jeera or even chilled glass of water are GUD swapes for colas and fruit drinks.

Maria Abdul Rahim We know that tetra milk shouldn’t be boiled.But which milk is better for health,tetra or apna good old dairy ka.

Sania Siddiqui Tetra Pak cartoon milk is any day healthier, better and hygienic than milk options in loose or pouch packs.
Not only cartoon milk saves you from the hassel of boiling and is easy to carry along during your trips but also retain the nutrients which get depleted due to boiling.
Tetra Pak milk does not come in contact with atmospheric pollutants and microbes and hence remains fresh fir a longer period of time.

Shabana Firdaus Which is better….tetra packed juice or fresh juice extracted at home..in terms of nutrition quotient

Sania Siddiqui Fruits (or vegetables) are handled for peeling and squeezing and comes in hand contact. Then, the equipment used may not be sterile or the glass can be unclean. All this could lead to contamination and exposure to microbes, even if the loose juice is ‘freshly’ squeezed and consumed on the spot/home. So, to be on the safer side and eliminate the hassle, packaged juices in Tetra Pak are a GUD choice and come handy – anywhere, everywhere!

Irfana Gundroo what about packed badaam drinks sania siddiqui?Are they feasible for the kids esp when out of convenience we quench their extreme thirst n try to elevate energy lvl when dey r bck from school at midday??

Sania Siddiqui If the Badaam drink that you are referring to is actually made of the real ingredients, good for them! Artificially flavored drinks does not hold much nutritional value. You can also give them chilled chachh (butter milk), fresh lime with little sugar and a pinch of salt or home frozen ice lollies.

Pratibha Tarnach Pandey I understand Sania but still one question is bothering me k kai bar hum doodh ko lambe samay tak garam krte rahte hai (doodh karrna). What happened in that case. I understand we add some dry fruits in that but what happened with its actutal properties.

Sania Siddiqui Vitamins and proteins gets destroyed when milk is boiled at temperatures above 100 degrees Celsius for over 15 minutes.
So may be you are adding nuts to it but the actual nutritive value of milk goes down due to excessive and prolonged boiling and repeated heating.

Shabana Firdaus Bt i find these packed juices too sweet.Do they hv added sugar?

Sania Siddiqui No, absolutely no sugar or preservatives are added to packed juices but yes in fruit drinks, there is added sugar and flavoring.

Qudsia Nizami I want to know more about tetra packs. How are these made sterile? Uv irradiation or hydrogen peroxide? Pasteurisation effects? And above all what about the lining inside? Polyethylene plastic or aluminium? What makes that safe?

Sania Siddiqui The packaging material is pre-sterilised by dipping it in hydrogen peroxide bath at 80 degree Celcius. This renders the packaging material bacteria-free before filling the commercially sterile product in it.
Tetra Pak packages are made of 3 materials – paperboard, polyethylene and aluminum. Altogether, there is 1 layer of paper, 4 layers of polyethylene and 1 layer of aluminum. The outer most layer of polyethylene provides the coating surface. Next is paper, providing the package with stiffness and the printing surface. Then comes an adhesive layer of polyethylene to bind the paper to the 4th layer i.e. aluminum. The aluminum has barrier properties to prevent the inward migration of light, air and bacteria. Finally, the innermost layers of food-grade polyethylene protect and contain the product.

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