KOLKATA: The Maggi controversy has raked up the food safety issue and the role of monitoring agency who would ensure that the food we consume is safe. The office of the food safety commissioner for every state is supposed to keep a vigil on safety standards of food by testing samples on regular basis.
West Bengal's performance in this regard is dismal. The state is among the worst performing states when it comes to collecting and testing food samples. According to annual food testing report for 2012-2013 by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), only 91 samples were collected and tested in the state. Even as 41 samples were found adulterated or misbranded, no cases were lodged against any of the offenders, let alone convicting or penalizing them.
The state's performance in the food safety issue is even worse than states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, that are branded as BIMARU states. Bihar collected 1189 food samples during the same period and analyzed 1103 samples out of which 121 samples were found adulterated. The state initiated 18 criminal and 71 civil cases against the offenders and 14 offenders were penalized. The state even collected a little more than rupees two lakhs as penalty.
State health officials point out insufficient manpower for its poor performance; At present there is only 14 food safety officers (FSO) for the entire state. Sources in the food safety commission says that with this meagre manpower it is impossible to go on collecting samples randomly.
"The number of FSO is insufficient right now. However we have got the post of 114 FSO sanctioned. Once the recruitment is made we are looking forward to improving our performance," said state food safety commissioner Godhuli Mukherjee.
But then Bihar too has only 14 FSOs and it has done better than West Bengal. States like Gujarat had 11,111 samples collected out of which 10,495 samples analyzed during the same period. Out of the 900 samples found adulterated, 56 criminal cases and 321 civil cases were lodged against the offender. This resulted to 16 convictions and 12 being penalized.
Among the big states Orissa is the only state that lags behind West Bengal. Even smaller states like Manipur, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh tested more samples than West Bengal. The tiny state of Arunachal Pradesh collected a whopping amount of Rs 6.33 lakhs by way of penalty.
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