Kerala: 76 new officials to fortify food safety department

The new officials will be inspecting fruits, vegetables, milk vans and water tankers.

A food safety inspection in Thiruvananthapuram. 

Thiruvananthapuram: 76 new food safety officers who completed their induction training will be checking fruits, vegetables and milk vans that are coming from across the border. The new set of officials will be checking water tanker lorries that sell drinking water for their quality. Kerala is the only State to have three full-fledged National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL). Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala alleged that the work of the food safety department had slowed down and shot off a letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Ever since T. V. Anupama, former food safety commissioner, who had put the State on the path to a healthy way of eating, was appointed as director of the social justice department last November, department officials were in a quandary as they had a hard time fighting the powerful pesticide lobby. But with stringent action and surveillance being enforced from across the border, the level of vegetables laced with pesticides had come down from 18 to 10 percent. Dr. Navjyoth Khosa took over from Anupama, but took a while to find his feet. But last week, Ms. Khosa came out with a landmark order stating that vehicle operators and also buyers within the State who got fruits, vegetables, fish and dried fish should be brought under the scanner. For the first time in the country, an oath was administered by the food safety commissioner to the newly appointed officers.

“Earlier, there was a dearth of adequate food safety inspectors. But with 76 new food safety officers being inducted on Tuesday after 50 days training, we are going to be pro-active. Apart from checking fruits, vegetables, fish and dried fish, from Wednesday the new food safety officers will be checking milk vans that are coming from across the border as well as tanker lorries which bring water”, said a top food safety official. A majority of the new appointments are veterinary doctors, agriculture degree holders, biotechnologists, biochemists, chemistry post-graduates and even homeopathy doctors. Currently, NABL labs are functional only in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and New Delhi having one each whereas Kerala has one each in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikode. The food safety department has generated Rs 20 crore per year to the Government from licensing and registration alone. However, Chennithala alleged that the mechanism to check food items at check posts had come to a standstill. According to him, earlier all restaurants were clearly monitored and erring enterprises booked, but now food safety officials were lax in their duty.