Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) Mobile APP

FSSAI App will allow the consumers in India to raise their food safety related concerns. Whether it is a Packaged Food or a Food Service Establishment, now consumers are empowered to know about the Food Business Operators and get informed about the Food Safety information. The app has built in functionalities to locate the consumer's geo location and any Food Incidents witnessed can be raised along with the captured pictures.

The app allows consumers to check different parameters on which the Food Safety is compromised for both Packaged Foods and Food served in ready-to-eat establishments. For served food, the consumer is given an option to rate the Overall Hygiene of the food service establishment.

Since most of the times the form of food consumed is either packed or serviced, FSSAI app provides Food Safety Tips and Food Safety laws as prescribed by FSSAI through its Regulations.

Provision for consumers to enter FSSAI issued License/Registration Number if available will provide accurate information about the FBO's adherence to the Food safety requirements.

Understaffed Food Safety Dept Fails to Check Adulteration

GUNTUR: At a time, food adulteration has become a major concern and questions about food quality and safety are being raised prominently, it is natural to question the role of food safety department.

Health activists accuse the government of neglecting public health and say that scant attention is being paid to food quality and safety. Free rein is given to food product companies and street sellers, they claim. Questions are being raised about the roles and responsibilities of the food safety department. However, the answer is not far to seek.

As per WHO standards, Food Safety Department, which is also entrusted with the task of issuing licences after due checks, should have a minimum of 600 staff members, but the state has only 30. For instance, in a recent raid conducted on the wholesale fruit shops in Vijayawada region, officers of other departments and other districts were drafted for duty.

There are several instances of adulterated food including ghee and milk being released into the market. The activists question the government that despite understanding the importance of food quality and public health, why more staff members are not being recruited for the food safety department.

Lack of staff with food safety department is also resulting in loss of precious revenue. This is because, it is the licensing authority for issuing permission for starting any food related company, venture or sales, as per the Food Safety and Standard Act of India (FSSAI). According to sources, there are about six lakh food vendors across the district and there is every possibility for the government to earn revenue of at least `100 crore towards processing fee for licenses.

But most of the food safety offices in the state are running without a computer operator, and hence the process of issuing licenses itself is a distant reality. Despite, some of the vendors approaching the offices seeking licenses, issuing licenses itself has become a burden to the department due to the skeletal staff.

Admitting that staff crunch is limiting their activities, State Food Safety Enforcement Officers Welfare Association General Secretary also the Guntur Zonal Food Controller N Purnachandra Rao said that as per the norms of Word Health Organisation there should be one food safety officer to one lakh rural populace and for 50,000 urban population, that should be 600 food safety officers in the state as per its population.

“However, we are asking the government to increase the staff by at least 100 so that we could manage to take up the documentation work like issuing licenses as well as in taking up raids from time-to-time,” he told Express.

Meanwhile, it is also learnt that the High Court, which took up the issue of artificial ripening of fruits using calcium carbide had suggested the government to enhance the staff numbers of the food safety department to prevent the incidents of food adulteration.

Drive to ensure quality of water in juice shops, eateries

Kozhikode: Those who have put up wayside juice shops and makeshift eateries to make some quick bucks during the summer beware. The owners of the juice and eatery outlets that use polluted water to prepare food items will face the music from the food safety department.

The officials of the food safety department have decided to initiate an extensive drive in the wake of increase in number of cases of waterborne diseases reported in the district. The week-long drive commencing from March 14 will exclusively target juice shops and makeshift eateries. Quality of water being used to prepare food items will be monitored.

Two squads from the food safety department will cover the city and its outskirts. Unlike in the earlier years, this time the department is also considering a proposal to conduct inspections at migrant labour camps to check the quality of drinking water used by them.

The squad will check the source of the water being used to prepare juices, ice creams and quality of ice supplied by local ice manufacturing units to make chilled drinks. The officials will also conduct inspections at ice manufacturing units.

More than 1,000 makeshift eatery outlets have been functioning at the various locations within the corporation limits.

According to the health department, the district registered around more than 4,500 cases of diarrhoea and more than 30 cases of hepatitis A from January 1March 12, 2016. It also reported ten typhoid cases from January 1March 12. In 2015, 135 cases of hepatitis A and 107 cases of typhoid were reported. Also 47,623 cases of diarrhoea were reported in 2015.

Retired additional district medical officer Dr M Shyamala said that consumption of chilled drinks and ice creams prepared using contaminated water often results in one getting waterborne diseases. "The public should not consume juices and water from makeshift eateries during the summer season and use of safe drinking water is the only available remedy to curb waterborne diseases,'' she said.

Assistant commissioner of food safety department C T Anil Kumar said, "Water samples will be collected from the juice shops and makeshift eateries to test the quality. The drive has been planned in the wake of increase in the number of waterborne diseases in the district and as part of precautions in the summer season. The eatery outlets and juice shops using contaminated water will be closed down on the spot''. He added that inspections will also be conducted at migrant labour camps to check quality of water. "We will also seek the help of health, local self-government bodies and labour departments in case need arises,'' he said.

Rs 1.26 lakh fine imposed on 30 eateries

Phagwara, Mar 13 (PTI) Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Iqbal Singh Sandhu today slapped a fine of Rs one lakh and twenty six thousand on 30 local shops and eateries for allegedly selling adulterated food items.

The fine was imposed after the samples collected by the District Food Safety Officer (DFSO) of the Health Department during the last two months tested positive, he said.

The DFSO had referred the case to the ADCs court.

The samples were taken from dhabas, sweetshops, dairies, restaurants and food corners.

Sandhu warned of heavier penalty in case the eateries violated the norms again.

Now, register packaged food complaints on FSSAI app

Discovered some “strange” and “unexpected” object in your packaged food and you do not know whom to approach? Here is a good news. Now, you will be able to report safety concerns of a packaged food product or served food at a restaurant instantly.

The Food Safety and Standards of India (FSSAI), in their new mobile application launched on Sunday, will have a feature by which the food concerns raised by a consumer will be routed to the food safety officer (FSO), a designated officer or the state food commissioner for necessary action.

The FSSAI app, which is a free mobile application developed will help consumers verify registration/ licence of the food manufacturer, will further help in ensuring safety standards of the product. The easy-to-use application will require only the licence number printed on the food package after which the app will search for manufacturer details in the FSSAI database and provide the details to the consumer who can verify the authenticity by matching the data. The consumers can then report their concern to the authority concerned.

Union health minister J.P. Nadda, who launched the “safety app”, told this newspaper that it is an “intiative to bring the in economic mainstream the unorganised sector of food vendors by providing them official recognition, dignity and skills. This would benefit the street food vendors to establish their brand enhance their income while also benefiting the consumers by promotion of hygiene and quality of the food served by the street food vendors. This is a true reflection of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of “sab ka sath sab ka vikas”.

The consumers will also have an option to provide hygiene rating of a food outlet through the App. According to officials, this will further help the food outlet to improve their hygiene standards. “This will also help the FSSAI to identify weak areas of hygiene and will help the outlet to improve their food safety standards”.

In a bid to help manufacturers provide safe food to its consumers the App also provides food safety tips on packed food and served food. This will help in creating awareness of safe food among the consumers too.

FBOs and regulators should not be seen as adversaries

Pawan Kumar Agarwal, CEO, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), has said that food business operators (FBOs) and regulators should not be seen as adversaries to each other instead they should be looked at as there to help each other in achieving the goal of food safety. Further, food businesses should adopt international best practices to stand the global trade competition, according to Agarwal.

“There is absolutely no reason for the regulator and food businesses to be seen in adversarial position. They are all citizens and consumers. As responsible citizen we’ll have to ensure food safety in all aspects of food business,” he said, while taking part in an event here recently.

The FSSAI CEO added that a framework is needed to be crafted so that the FBOs are guided well with regard to compliance. “Our job is to improve the quality of the food that is being manufactured in the country. We have to create a framework for continuous improvement and for that FBOs are first to be guided for compliance for all aspects/critical points for manufacturing of the food.”

With regard to bridging the communication gap that seems to have cropped up between FBOs and regulators, Agarwal said, this is already being done. He informed, “We have an absolute open door policy for FBOs of all kinds, for consumers, for civil organisation and we’ll be close to all stakeholders.”

This is evident with recent developments wherein FSSAI issued clarification with respect to proprietary food and released standards for additives. And now the FSSAI is moving towards surveillance through risk assessment instead of sample-based enforcement.

Agarwal stated, “The whole new paradigm instead of enforcement through samples, we have to go to surveillance through risk assessment and risk management. It is still not there in our regulatory environment so we have a long way to go.”

He pointed out that the food business was getting global with increase in exports and imports and the industry tended to lose out if our food safety regulatory environment was not in accordance with global standards. There is no choice but to adopt international best practices of food safety and the regulator should get all cooperation from FBOs.

As for creation of science-based standards, the FSSAI CEO said that the process was time-consuming and complicated although it had been accelerated in the past few months and 80-90 of the standards and regulations should be in place within the next few months.

“There is no way a regulator will be able to ensure food safety with small machinery. Therefore the onus of the food safety lies on food businesses and that is the paradigm shift. HACCP and other such principles should be maintained by the food business,” he said.

Centre Launches Project To Train Street Food Sellers In Delhi

NEW DELHI: Vendors selling street food in the national capital will now be sensitised about health and hygiene for raising food safety standards.

Health Minister J P Nadda on Sunday launched the project titled as 'Clean Street Food' to be undertaken by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

The FSSAI will train street food vendors under the Recognition of Prior Learning category of the Centre's skills training scheme, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana.

Speaking at the launch of the Project, Mr Nadda said it is a pragmatic, practical, constructive and positive approach to skilling one of the largest unorganised sectors of the country.

"With nearly 20 lakh street vendors in the country, the training of 20,000 vendors on a pilot basis in the NCR of Delhi is a welcome steep. As street food forms an integral part of our society, the project which shall upgrade the skills of the street food vendors, will also contribute to preventive and promotive health," he said.

Under the Delhi Project, 20,000 food street vendors would be trained, assessed and certified by seven training partners over the next four weeks at 40 training centres.

Besides, the FSSAI also launched a Mobile App to empower citizens to reach out to the food enforcement machinery for any concerns or suggestions that they may have on the issue of food safety.

The National Association of Street Vendors of India is engaged in mobilization of street vendors across Delhi to persuade them to undergo training.

The Tourism and Hospitality Sector Skill Council, an affiliate of the National Skill Development Corporation, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship will be the training provider under the Project.

Food vendors will receive Smart Skill-cum-Registration cards on completion of the training.

Hygiene lessons for Street Vendors