MAHARASHTRA FDA's New Year resolution: Get eateries to toe food safety law

As the countdown to 2012 begins in December, restaurants and pubs in the city are in for an inspection for food safety. The state Food and Drug Administration (FDA) department will be examining the eateries across the cities just a month before New Year's eve.

After issuing notices to bars and restaurants to comply with the new Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006, the FDA has deployed teams across the state to check the hygiene levels in haunts both popular and obscure.


Clean drive: FDA officials say non-compliance with food standards on
the part of diners will invite a penalty of Rs 100 daily. Representaion pic

"This year we will take stringent action against eateries that fail to comply with the amended FSS Act. We are giving them a month's notice so that they get enough time to adopt the new law. Hygiene and food safety will be our priority," said Suresh Deshmukh, assistant commissioner (food).

Deshmukh revealed that teams of food inspectors have already been put on the job to scrutinise eateries and they will issue an improvement notice to the eatery if needed. 

From getting registered with FDA to wearing gloves, submitting water reports, making food and safety management plan, testing of food extra all will be monitored before the new year commences.

"Restaurants have been given enough time to get registered with the FDA and make changes as per the
amended law. Now onwards, whoever fails to get registered with the FDA will have to pay the penalty of Rs 100. We do not want them to take the law lightly. Also mandatory chances before the New Year too is on cards," he said.

Recently, a team of retailers and hoteliers appealed to the FDA commissioner to withdraw the clause of penalty. "Orchestra bars are the major violators during new year's eve, so we have decided to start our drive with them, followed by restaurants and hotels."

However, Sudhakar Shetty, president, Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association (AHAR) said, "The new law is not feasible. November 30 is the deadline for registration or else we will have to cough up a Rs 100 fine per day. We have appealed to the FDA commissioner to simplify the amended act and extend the registration process till March 30. With Christmas and New Year round the corner to keep us busy, making all the necessary changes is not possible."

Wipro’s Trace Solve – unique solution that can ensure Food Act compliance

Wipro, the information technology major, has a unique offering for the food industry - Trace Solve - that ensures enterprise-wide continuous compliance visibility at more than one location in the food industry.

With the Union government working to implement the Food Safety Standards Act across the country in total, the company is looking at opportunities in the industry to chip in its expertise.

The Trace Solve solution will continuously monitor attributes of received material, compare these with operating specification. There is also an alert management system which signals when incoming attributes are out-of-specification, according to Ravi Purohit, GM and global head, food, beverages, agriculture and tobacco sectors, CPG Vertical, Wipro Limited.

Other notable features of the solution are that it also monitors the associate downstream outcomes with upstream events which cover the product capabilities, equipment, events, processes, etc.) to find profit and quality leakages. In addition, it also manages temperature information and predicts remaining shelf life when the product arrives and provides bi-directional traceability for products which are bought from third-parties.

Now with the FSSA insisting on food recall, the company is looking at participating in this at the national level offering solutions to the food processing industry. “We have worked in similar initiatives in the European Union and can participate in bringing our technology and consulting expertise to help this initiative,” added Purohit.

“Now we bring in our rich background working with leading food & beverage companies in different areas of the supply chain. We work with leading product vendors to deliver solutions to the customers for traceability. Wipro has developed solution in niche areas within the scope which is not addressed by the vendors, for instance interfacing with the POS (point of sale) system to block product sales in case of a recall,” he said.

Food recall is a relatively new concept in India but it is well defined in most of the developed countries. According to Purohit, all international brands have a stringent quality system and are applicable in India as well, as they and the local brands are monitored by the FPO, BIS and other regulatory authorities. Moreover companies have voluntarily recalled products earlier based on their quality analysis but not structured. For exports we have government organisations such as APEDA and MPEDA which monitor this.

The challenges that most of the companies face in food recall are primarily due to lack of visibility at different stages of the supply chain. The information to track and trace is available in silos within the system. There needs to be investment into traceability system which will pull all these silos of information into one platform and provide alerts. We have constantly heard prevention is better than cure. There is a lack of or less automation and information available electronically for providing alerts to respond quickly. The major reason is maturity in technology and cheap labour cost, according to him.

“In India, the food recall though stringent has not been implemented as intended. The international law comes down very severely on the companies forcing them to close down. But in India this has not been the case as there are a lot of legal and operational hurdles. The companies still face significant challenges on spurious products and there are still no answers this,” pointed out Purohit.

In early November this year, Wipro was chosen by Premier Foods, the United Kingdom’s largest food producer, as a strategic technology partner. The company’s partnership with SAP, delivery innovation, outcome-based service models and competencies in cloud- based services will be leveraged for this engagement with the UK-based food major. “The company adopts the consumer packaged goods practice which is a value chain-based approach enabling it to provide customised, industry-specific solutions that complement our deep technology background,” he added, on a concluding note.

CII Recommends Actionable Agenda for Effective Implementation

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) calls for effective implementation of food safety and standards regulations under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). Multiple agencies specifying mandatory requirements for food products need to be looked into with focus on harmonizing inter-ministerial standards, says a CII press release. This would cut down the current operational and compliance complexities faced by the industry.

“The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India seeks to introduce a paradigm shift in the food regulatory environment in the country, bringing India at par with international regulations. While the new rules and regulations are welcome step, there is need to address several challenges that are likely to hamper its effective implementation,” said Mr. Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII.

The FSSAI has recently notified the Food Safety and Standards Rules and Regulations, 2011, which brings into force a new set of requirements for compliance by the food industry.

In a survey of food businesses conducted by CII on impact of the new Regulations, some major bottlenecks in effective implementation of FSSAI were highlighted.

Inadequate preparedness of the implementation machinery coupled with lack of awareness and clarity amongst industry and enforcement officers especially with respect to licensing provisions are the foremost issues identified by the CII survey. Existence of multiplicity of agencies governing food and duplication of mandatory licenses, inadequate centre-state coordination, severe shortage of laboratory infrastructure, trained officials for testing and analysis, inadequacy of field level officers are some of the key regulatory and infrastructure challenges faced.

Absence of standardization of sampling and analytical methods and similar procedural constraints, have been highlighted as major impediments in the new regulatory regime, according to the CII survey.

The CII statement adds that while licensing and registration processes have been notified under rules and regulations, there needs to be an enabling transitory regime to allow the industry to meet these new requirements and realize the benefits from modern and scientific regulatory framework, as envisaged in the Act.

CII has made following recommendations to make the legislation effective and sustainable:

• More clarity and awareness regarding jurisdiction of licenses and renewal processes is needed. Awareness programmes for all stakeholders and proper training to implementing authorities including food safety officers, analysts, etc would facilitate compliance of rules and regulations.

• Capacity building for food testing and analysis, specifying sampling procedures as well as focus on creating adequate accredited laboratory infrastructure that meets international standards, is the need of the hour.

• Going forward, revision of existing regulatory standards for keeping pace with scientific advancements; scientific and technical evaluation of new and upcoming regulations like recall, import, nutrition guidelines, etc need to be taken up by the regulatory authority.

• Building on consumer awareness and creating a demand-driven compliance regime would help inculcate food safety culture.

Finally, to create an enabling regime of food safety, there is need to identify key issues such as food borne illnesses, and linking these back to process failures in the system. This will require building the appropriate food-borne disease surveillance infrastructure and appropriate recall systems in the country, added the CII press release.