The Food Safety and Standards Act was enacted by Parliament in 2006 – after nearly 10 years of deliberations – with great hopes of building a modern, technologically vibrant food sector. But stakeholders are now asking whether this much awaited law is in danger of being whittled down and its original intentions defeated.
The intent of this law was to bring all food related statutes together, introduce scientific risk assessment methodologies and transparency in the determination of food standards, and tackle the problem of food contamination before the contamination actually took place.
But for the last six months there has been no full time chairperson at Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). Staff strength in FSSAI is getting depleted and there is a chronic shortage of people with risk assessment skills who can understand and deal with the complex issues involved in food safety. The food safety regulator is in danger of drifting back to the obsolete and unscientific procedures which governed food safety regulation in the country under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, which has since been repealed. India’ s food industry also seems to be blissfully unaware of the impending crisis which can upset all their investment plans and product innovations.
The new Act recognises that food safety is not merely a matter of punishing acts of food contamination but involves scientific determination of standards, holding industry accountable for safe manufacture of food and risk-based regulation in line with the resources and skills available.
Making the law more stringent is no guarantee for effective implementation as is clear from the more than one lakh food safety related cases pending in courts. Most developed countries have moved on to risk-based and science-driven food safety standards and industry is being held squarely accountable for safe food through verifiable standards monitored by the regulator.
By taking on the vast and unnecessary responsibility of approving the safety of each individual food product, the food safety regulator is constantly under pressure to clear thousands of products, many of which may have ingredients which have safe limits laid down either within the country or internationally.
However, since no risk assessment is carried out, there is no documentary basis for regulatory decisions. Besides, no reasons are given for approvals, approvals are often contradictory, and there is no procedure for appeals or time limits for clearance. This seems to have seriously hampered the process of innovation and introduction of new and often healthier products in the market.
It should be noted that product approval by a team of officers is no guarantee of food safety. The food item has to be manufactured safely in line with the standards and this can only be ensured by insisting that industry follow verifiable process standards on a day to day basis, get certified by accredited agencies and be subject to risk-based inspections.
Even an advanced country like the US is able to inspect only 1% of the total food produced in the country. What other countries have done is to lay down easily understood safety standards and guidance documents for ensuring compliance. They intervene only when malfeasance is detected.
India really needs a paradigm shift in its food safety regulation system – from relying solely on supply-side food safety, it should develop demand-pull systems for it. Demand-pull systems work with consumers demanding quality and safety attributes in food and forcing the supply side to fall in line. Failing which, they would be made to face punitive market response and regulatory action.
Keeping in view the large unorganised sector India’ s food safety law requires the regulator to lay down simple standards, undertake extensive food safety education, and enable industry to achieve and demonstrate safety. Drafts of critical regulations such as food labelling, functional foods, standards for school meals, water quality and so on are awaiting the regulator’ s attention.
That’ s not all. Public food testing laboratories need to be upgraded urgently. Thousands of food safety professionals need to be trained to man vacant posts in the states. The regulator also needs to work with state governments to bring the use of chemicals in agriculture to safe limits.
In US, the government recently undertook a review of implementation of its food law and brought in significant changes in its implementation. In UK, the food regulator has made industry primarily responsible for food safety and has laid down methods of certification and accreditation to verify that it does so.
The wonderful opportunity that was provided by the Food Safety and Standards Act to modernise the food sector with safety, transparency and inclusiveness as its prime objectives, seems to be on the verge of collapse. Reversion to the command and control approach of the old food laws is not an option either because it has been found severely wanting.
The march of technology and new products requires a responsive mindset towards regulation and a willingness to learn. When decisions are not backed by science and due diligence, the regulator runs the risk of being rendered irrelevant to the needs of a fast changing economy and society.
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