ALLAHABAD: The total number of small slaughterhouses along with other petty food business operations (FBO) in the state cannot be ascertained as a survey for the same has not been carried out by food and drug administration since the inception of food safety and standards act in 2011.Apart from it, 56% of the total 45,868 businesses who duly applied for licences were issued the same without carrying out inspections of safety, hygiene and sanitary conditions, reveals a report released by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) here. The report also blames poor health of the people in the state to the petty businesses.The petty FBO includes abatoirs whose slaughtering capacity includes two large animals or 10 small animals or 50 poultry birds. Apart from slaughter houses, dairy units and food production units having turnover less than 12 lakh annually also comes under FBOs.Principal Accountant General PK Kataria said, "There was no assurance that all the petty FBOs running their business in districts were actually registered and licensed under the FSS Act."In the absence of surveys, there was no mechansim available at district level to assess the number and consequently food safety authority was not able to monitor their activities.
The audit team had also carried out inspections randomly across the state apart from seeking documents from Commissioner, Food Safety. The teams found that about 99% licenses were issued to businesses in tested-districts without checking adequacy of safety measures, sanitary and hygienic conditions."The extreme laxity on the part of the department in enforcing the provisions of food and safety standards act resulted in majority of the slaughterhouses and other FBOs running their business without any licence and registration," said CAG report.. .
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