Street play teaches food safety lessons

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  Members of Saral Maiyam theatre group performing on Marina Beach on Thursday

Eating at a hotel and you suspect that food safety standards have not been adhered to? Do you know you can submit a sample of the food item at an accredited laboratory and, if the tests reveal adulteration or contamination, lodge a complaint with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) under the new Food Safety and Standards Act 2006?

According to Kalyani Rajaraman, project manager, Consumer Association of India (CAI), the new Act seeks to ensure better consumer safety through food safety management systems and set standards based on science and transparency. And, for the first time in the country, the CAI in partnership with FSSAI has piloted a ‘mass contact education programme on food safety, standards and unsafe food’ in Tamil Nadu to clear the ambiguity surrounding the Act and promote safe food practices among food business operators (FBOs).

For the CAI the challenge lies in the fact that FBOs in the State are reluctant to accept the Act, while consumers are unaware of the meaning of safe food. A survey conducted among 745 consumers in both urban and rural areas in July 2012 shows that knowledge about the law is practically absent (93 per cent) among both consumers and the youth segment, Kalyani pointed out. “Only 12 per cent have ever registered a complaint against adulterated and unsafe food and most often the complaint is made to the shopkeeper himself,” she said.

Hence the CAI, along with FSSAI, has embarked upon a mass contact programme to create awareness about the “empowered role of consumers”. An audio-visual van – Food Safety Express – traversed 620 locations across Chennai, Vellore, Madurai, Tiruchy and Coimbatore, carrying the message of food safety to nearly three lakh consumers. “We have also identified and trained 60 food safety champions from the five districts, 1,500 consumers and 300 FBOs,” the consumer rights activist said.   

The association has also engaged a theatre group, Saral Maiyam, to stage street plays to get consumers’ attention. “We have to serve people from all walks of life and we are using traditional folk arts to attract the common man. Short films and radio spots have been created to impact the ‘elite’ using electronic media, while rallies have been planned to get school students into the loop,” Kalyani said.

On Thursday, the 12-member group staged a street play on the Marina, drawing a sizeable crowd with their drumbeats and foot-tapping music of folk dances like thapattam, oyilattam and kambattam. Through dialogue and song they showed how consumers were being taken for a ride and cautioned them to be vigilant.  

“The entire play was very informative. I wasn’t aware of this Act and the role of the consumer in it. This was worth my time,” said Guna, one of many who witnessed the play.

The motivation for the entire programme, according to Kalyani, is the lack of awareness among consumers despite the Act being enforced in 2011. “So far in the city we have witnessed a good turnout with that in Koyambedu market being overwhelming.”