Violators of food safety act going scot-free

With all the stir that the recent food safety inspections and the Food Safety and Standards Act 2011 has brought in, the prosecution against the food outlet owners and other food manufacturers have been practically wiped out. Or at least, such has been the case for the last one year since the passing of the Act.
“We have not had to prosecute anyone as yet,   owing largely to the fact that the food safety campaigns, raids and the fines have been  acting as powerful deterrents in themselves. In the earlier Prevention of Food Adulteration  Act, such deterrents were not given priority and prosecution was resorted to in most of the  cases. Hence, there has been thousands of pending cases. Even now, we have more than 2,000 cases pending under the Act. This means that a large number of the officials would be involved in appearing for the cases before the court, which can now be prevented,” said Biju Prabhakar, Commissioner of Food Safety.
But a few critics have pointed out that though the campaigns of the Food Safety and Standards Department have had some effect, the new Act has implied the suspension of the rigorous sampling and prosecution measures against the defaulters in the last one year.
“Earlier, it was mandatory for the food inspectors to take at least 30 samples each month and test the same. If found adulterated,  the defaulters were immediately prosecuted, which acted as a deterrent for the food manufacturers. But in the last one year or so, after the new Act coming into being, the measure has been suspended. Now it is only under the emergency cases or filed complaints  that the samples are being tested,” said a food safety inspector from Ernakulam.
Another issue pointed out is that none of the labs in the state that tests the food samples  have the NABL accreditation as recommended under the Act, making it difficult to execute the penalty. The Food Safety Commissioner countered the point by saying that the onus of proving the authenticity of the samples rested with the accused and not with the authorities.
“The lack of accreditation will not be a factor in the prosecution. If the accused has doubts on the authenticity of the charge, the onus is on him to test the sample in a  NABL-accredited lab. Moreover, we are working towards getting the NABL accreditation for the lab in Thiruvananthapuram by March 2013. The funds for more labs are yet to be allocated by the Twelfth Finance Commission,” he said.

Food safety wing lacks staff

The understaffed Warangal zone’s food safety department is likely to get some respite under recently enacted The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, which came into force in the state with effect from December 2011 in place of the old Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954.
Out of the official sanctioned strength of over 30 food safety officers (FSOs) in Warangal zone, comprising 6-8 each for Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal and Khammam districts, the regional Food Safety department is presently being manned by only six FSOs.
Out of the six FSOs working in Warangal zone, Adilabad has only two FSOs followed by Karimnagar (1), Warangal (1) and Khammam (2).
The regional unit has two other higher-level officers above the FSOs, namely food safety designated officers (four are presently working in four districts) headed by an assistant food controller, who is the supervising authority in the regional unit.
As the only department playing watchdog role over food safety aspects like adulteration, sub-standard food and misbranding, sources said the understaffed department officials had little time to take up surprise raids under the old 1954 Act, which had no provision to take up compounding of cases registered by the department.
Presently, the lone Food Safety Officer (FSO) working in Warangal district is burdened with attending 220 court cases filed in various courts leaving no time for conducting raids on suspected shops selling adulterated or sub-standard food items in the market.
Sources pointed out FSOs in each of the four districts under the Warangal zone are facing a similar situation attending pending court cases numbering about 150-300 in each district.
What is more, once a case is registered by the FSOs of the respective district, official sources pointed out that the case often drags on for an average period of 5-7 years before it is disposed of by a competent court.
This also explains why the department never carries out en mass raids over hundreds of roadside eateries and hotels selling sub-standard food items to customers.
However, department officials hope the new 2006 Act would bring in positive change as joint collectors of the respective districts have been designated as ‘adjudicating officer’ with power to compound the offence of the accused by levying fines.
According to D. Ramakrishna, food safety designated officer, Warangal district, the new Act brings offences such as ‘misbranding of products’ and sale of ‘sub-standard eatables’ under the compoundable category.
“These offences can now be decided by joint collector under the new Act without approaching the courts,” he said.

Ban Guthka It's a grave health concern, it spoils lives of our youth

The increasing consumption of Guthka, Pan Masala and such other chewing tobacco products in Jammu and Kashmir is a matter of deep concern.  Unfortunately, even the children and young adolescents have access to these products as they are freely available and at affordable costs at every nook and corner of the State. These products thus act as a gateway to drug addiction for this vulnerable population. Besides, poor section of the society consumes it as a leisure product. The impact can be seen in the form of rising number of cancer cases, especially oral cancer in the State.
            As per, Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS)-India Report 2009-10, among 26.6% adult tobacco users in the State of J&K, 8% exclusively use smokeless form of tobacco. Shockingly, usage of Guthka, Pan Masala and such other chewing tobacco products are found to be significant among females and young adults in the State. Among 4.1% of the current women users in the State 3.7 % are consuming it on a daily basis. In other words, a majority of them are addicted to the Guthka products.
It is in this context of greater health concerns, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) issued a notification in 2011 that clearly states “any food product should not contain tobacco and nicotine”. Therefore, Guthka, Pan Masala and such other chewing tobacco products falling under this category are prohibited by virtue of the above mentioned notification. 14 states including Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, Mizoram, Sikkim and Uttarakhand have already banned and complied with the notification, by issuing orders and taking appropriate measures to prevent the sales, manufacture and use of these lethal products.
Government of Jammu & Kashmir should also take measures to ban Guthka and other chewable food products containing tobacco and nicotine as ingredients, to show its commitment towards greater health concerns of the citizens. This would be a milestone and progressive step towards making J&K a tobacco free State.

(A. M. Mir, IAS (Retd.) is Executive Director J&K Voluntary Health Association)