Sirsa, September 27
With the festival season drawing closer, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has drawn a strategy to check the sale of substandard and adulterated food products in Haryana.
GL Singal, joint director, FDA, was in Sirsa and Fatehabad recently to interact with officials of the Health Department in this regard. “After the implementation of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, in Haryana earlier this year, the enforcement measures in the food items have witnessed a number of changes,” said Singal while talking to The Tribune. “Earlier, only the government food inspector (GFI), now rechristened as food safety officer (FSA), was authorised to take samples of food product. Now, medical officers working at primary health centres, senior medical officers, working at community health centres and general hospitals and deputy civil surgeons (health) working at the district level have been notified as FDAs by the government,” he said.
While earlier one FSA worked for two to three districts due to several vacancies in their cadre, now the FDA has 20 to 25 FSAs in each district, depending upon the numbers of PHCs, CHCs and GHs there, he added. As an earlier practice, under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954, all cases where samples taken by the GFI failed to comply with the standards, complaint cases were filed in the courts where these dragged for years due to heavy rush of work on an average 400 to 500 cases went to courts every year in Haryana.
Later, these cases went to the district courts and the high court. Now, with the implementation of the new Act, the cases are filed before the Additional Deputy Commissioners, who have been notified as adjudicating officers under the FSSA-2006 and the cases are disposed of in a few months by imposing fine as prescribed under the law. ADC Rajiv Rattan in Fatehabad has become the first adjudicating officer to decide a first lot of five cases, filed before him in April this year, in a period less than five months.
Only those cases in which the food item is found injurious to health are filed in special courts notified under the new Act.
With the festival season drawing closer, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has drawn a strategy to check the sale of substandard and adulterated food products in Haryana.
GL Singal, joint director, FDA, was in Sirsa and Fatehabad recently to interact with officials of the Health Department in this regard. “After the implementation of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, in Haryana earlier this year, the enforcement measures in the food items have witnessed a number of changes,” said Singal while talking to The Tribune. “Earlier, only the government food inspector (GFI), now rechristened as food safety officer (FSA), was authorised to take samples of food product. Now, medical officers working at primary health centres, senior medical officers, working at community health centres and general hospitals and deputy civil surgeons (health) working at the district level have been notified as FDAs by the government,” he said.
While earlier one FSA worked for two to three districts due to several vacancies in their cadre, now the FDA has 20 to 25 FSAs in each district, depending upon the numbers of PHCs, CHCs and GHs there, he added. As an earlier practice, under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954, all cases where samples taken by the GFI failed to comply with the standards, complaint cases were filed in the courts where these dragged for years due to heavy rush of work on an average 400 to 500 cases went to courts every year in Haryana.
Later, these cases went to the district courts and the high court. Now, with the implementation of the new Act, the cases are filed before the Additional Deputy Commissioners, who have been notified as adjudicating officers under the FSSA-2006 and the cases are disposed of in a few months by imposing fine as prescribed under the law. ADC Rajiv Rattan in Fatehabad has become the first adjudicating officer to decide a first lot of five cases, filed before him in April this year, in a period less than five months.
Only those cases in which the food item is found injurious to health are filed in special courts notified under the new Act.
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