பொங்கலோ பொங்கல்! மாட்டுப்பொங்கல்

Food for thought

Regulating food standards is no easy business, but something that needs to be taken seriously by the authorities concerned

When India attained independence in 1947, the need then was to provide food for the new nation and punish those who tried to benefit by dealing in adulterated food. The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1955 (PFA), as the name suggests, was framed with such an intent. Over time, the need changed from policing the food industry to ensuring that that safe food was available to people. The Food Safety and Standards, Act, 2006 (FSSA) replaced the PFA.

One oft quoted example is that the PFA treated a person who adulterated milk with gutter water and one who used distilled water equally. The FSSA, thankfully, makes a distinction between such situations and provides for stringent punishment, including imprisonment, when the food sold is unsafe but contemplates a fine where there is some other violation.

The FSSA has also created the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) as the regulatory authority at the national level, tasked with ensuring ‘safe and wholesome food’ through ‘science based standards’ for food.

One question that naturally arises is what is ‘food’? Under the FSSA, ‘food’ includes any substance (processed or unprocessed) intended for human consumption, including ‘proprietary and novel’ foods, genetically modified foods and health supplements.

The FSSA consolidates the laws relating to food and has overriding effect over other food related laws. The FSS regulates the manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import of food. It provides for licensing and registration of persons involved in food business; prescribes standards and guidelines for food articles and regulates use of food additives, processing aids, colours and contaminants; prescribes packaging and labelling requirements; imposes food safety responsibilities on the manufacturers to ensure food safety at all stages; prohibits misleading advertisements and unfair trade practices for promoting the sale, supply, use or consumption of food.

Recognising the fact that is impossible to lay down the standards for every substance that humans may consume, the FSSA provided for ‘proprietary food’, which is defined to mean food for which standards have not been specified but which is not unsafe and does not contain any prohibited food or ingredient.

In most countries, there is no concept of standardised food — of food having to meet a particular standard in terms of ingredients used as long as the food does not contain any prohibited ingredients or generally contains ingredients from a list, it is permitted.

These concepts of standardised and proprietary food and the fact that the FSSAI requires every proprietary food to be pre-approved are proving to be one of the biggest challenges faced by food business operators, in particular food importers. What the pre-approval process implies is that if any person wishes to sell any food in India which does not strictly fall under with any of the standardised foods in the FSSA needs to have the food pre-approved by the FSSAI, much in the same manner as the drug controller approved drugs.

There is some debate as to whether the FSSA at all provides for approval of all proprietary food but the FSSAI is following this process nonetheless. While this process of pre-approval may be beneficial for the consumers as it ensures that all foods are thoroughly examined before being introduced in the market, it seriously diminishes the ability of manufacturers to introduce new foods quickly. Under the current process even if a manufacturer wishes to introduce a combination of two approved foods or change the flavouring in some approved food, he will again need to obtain approval from the FSSAI. This is one reason why many food products and variants that are available abroad are not seen on Indian shelves.

The second major challenge faced, again particularly by importers, is the fact many standards laid down under the FSSA are divergent from international standards. The FSSAI needs to address this rather quickly as many foods available abroad become either unavailable in India or need to be greatly modified in order to be sold here.

A third major challenge being faced, perhaps more by the FSSAI than by food business operator, is the requirement of every food business operator to have a licence/ registration. This includes every eatery and restaurant and also every shop selling packaged food. Given the fact that there are millions of such establishments in the country, issuing licences/registrations to everyone will stretch FSSAI’s resources. The deadline for this is February 4, 2014 — and frankly, the FSSAI may have bitten off more than it can chew. It is possibe that either the FSSAI may extend the deadline or most operators may not be able to obtain a licence/registration before the deadline. Notwithstanding these problems, the requirement of a licence/registration is certainly a step in the right direction. We the consumers would be reassured if we knew that the operator had been scrutinised by an authority.

A fourth challenge being faced is in proceedings that are being initiated under the FSSA. The PFA, which had been around for decades, had been subject to hundreds of court proceedings and there was an air of certainty regarding the procedural aspects of proceedings under the PFA. Under the FSSA, however, it will be some time till such certainty is reached. At present, there are examples where similar proceedings in different states are being conducted in entirely divergent manners.

Most of the challenges faced in compliance with the FSSA can be put down as teething troubles, something which would be resolved over time.

(The writer is partner, Associated Law Advisers)

Get licence by Feb 4, health dept warns eatery owners

Ludhiana, January 14

District health officer (DHO) Dr Abnash Kumar has warned owners of all eateries to get their units registered or get the licences issues by February 4 or face action. 

The DHO said: “All eateries, both big and small, are being covered under Food Standard and Safety Act, 2006. Eateries having an annual income of more than Rs 12 lakh need to get the licence while the smaller units with income less than Rs 12 lakh should be registered under the Act. 

The DHO said the health department was holding special camps for the purpose since January 9. Anyone who wants to get his eatery registered could visit to the civil surgeon’s office between 9 am and 5 pm. For more information, the applicant could dial on the control room number 0161-444193. The civil surgeon, Dr Subhash Batta, said a camp would be held at at Shringar Theatre on January 15. The DHO said those who fail to obtain licence or get their units registered till February would be fined Rs 5 lakh or can face imprisoned for six months.

Food commercialism harming school children

New York, Jan 14: Are you alarmed at the increasing presence of junk food and carbonated drinks in school canteens? Blame it on food commercialism.

Schools are desirable marketing areas for food and beverage companies, although many of the products marketed to students are nutritionally poor, says a study.

“Most students in elementary, middle and high schools are exposed to food commercialism - including exclusive beverage contracts and the associated incentives, profits and advertising - at school,” said Yvonne Terry-McElrath of University of Michigan.

Using a survey of school administrators, researchers estimated exposure to school-based commercialism for elementary, middle and high school students in the US from 2007 to 2012.

"The continuing high prevalence of school-based food commercialism calls for enforceable standards on the nutritional content of all foods and beverages available in school canteens,” said the study.

In India, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India is putting in place final guidelines to determine what counts as healthy food in educational institutions.

The guidelines, to be released soon, would categorise food items commonly sold and consumed in schools under segments such as junk food, street food, nutritional food and unhealthy food.

According to food safety activists, the step is important since packaged food and beverage companies have been aggressively targeting kids.

Joint drive to curb dumping of waste

KOZHIKODE: Those who dump waste at public places in the district will not be spared anymore. 

The animal husbandry department with the help of food safety department and police will begin a joint drive to nab those who have been throwing waste from slaughter houses and meat shops at public places. 

The officials will also inspect the meat shops to check the hygiene standard of the shops functioning at various parts in the district. 

A decision in this regard was taken at a district-level monitoring committee meeting held at the collectorate on January 6. 

The officials will take legal actions against those who litter the waste from the meat shops at public places. A committee has been constituted to carry out the inspection. District collector C A Latha is the chairperson of the committee constituted to check the hygienic aspects of the meat shops at various parts of the district. 

The district has a total of 138 licenced slaughter houses and 40 meat shops. But in reality, many meat shops operate illegally without licences from the authorities concerned. The absence of modernized slaughter houses has been forcing owners to slaughter the cattle without conducting pre-post mandatory check-ups. 

K Chandra Prasad, district animal husbandry officer said a committee comprising health inspectors, food safety officials, corporation and local self-government body representatives, and police has been constituted to carry out the inspections in the district. 

"Those who have been selling meat in unhygienic conditions will be asked to take up corrective measures. The department has also asked the respective local self-government bodies to set up rendering plants to convert the waste from the meat shops into value-added products,'' he said.

"The grama panchayats have agreed to set up plants by earmarking fund in the budget for 2014-2015,'' he said. 

"There will be practical difficulty in taking actions against meat shops as no LSG bodies in the district have set up scientific slaughter houses ,'' he said, 

Meanwhile, P Sivadasan, food safety officer said a decision on onsite inspection will be taken after holding a discussion with the departments involved in the process. "The food safety department, with six officials to cater to the needs of the entire district, will first serve notices to meat shops working under unhygienic condition to take up corrective measures. Action will be taken against those who fail to take up remedial measures despite serving notices,'' he said. "A meeting this week will decide on the day of the commencing of the joint drive,'' he said. 

Officials of animal husbandry department with the help of food safety department will inspect meat shops to check their hygiene standard.