Licence does not ensure food is safe for consumption: Ashwin Bhadri

An end-to-end solution for food, water and air quality testing / auditing in the country, Equinox Labs is a Food Safety And Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) notified laboratory. It also has accreditation from the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) and is among the first few private Food Safety Training And Certification (FoSTaC) partners in the country. Ashwin Bhadri, chief executive officer, Equinox Labs, in conversation with Ashish K Tiwari, speaks about the delisting of food business outlets from various online food delivery platforms, the purpose it serves in the area of promoting food safety and hygiene. Edited excerpts...

What's your take on the recent uproar on food safety and hygiene issues with large and small food service businesses in the country?

The situation is not as bad as it looks like. There have been a few instances of videos going viral on social media platforms but those are just a handful of fly-by-night food service businesses bringing a bad name to the industry. It's like if there have been few instances of Ola or Uber cab drivers misbehaving or being unprofessional doesn't mean people should stop using their services. It can't be a one represents all scenario. There is no denying that there have been instances of food safety and hygiene issues and whether online platforms are involved or not, it is a concern and a critical aspect for every (food industry) player irrespective of the size.

What stops food business operators from following safety and hygiene practices?

There appears to be a perception that following food safety norms is expensive, it is not. There is a lack of awareness and knowledge gap among food business owners. I have been in the food safety domain for 13 years now and have trained over 45,000 people. From what I have witnessed, it's not that a food business owner / handler deliberately wants to cause food poisoning. The issue is that no one has taught the food handler the dos and don'ts of doing it right.

The FSSAI has a training programme for creating awareness on that front.

FoSTaC is a great initiative by FSSAI where they have now made it mandatory that at least one person in 25 needs to get trained and s/he can then train the remaining. That's the onus being passed on to the food safety supervisor. That's a programme if it actually gets to the root wherein 80% to 90% of the people in the food service business are trained, it will have a much bigger impact on food safety and hygiene practices across the industry.

The main challenge however, is with food businesses in the lower strata where one person managing the entire operations and makes Rs 200 to 300 a day, the person doesn't have enough time on hand to ensure food safety and hygiene standards because s/he is short on staff. You can't blame such players because s/he is struggling for her/ his livelihood and cannot afford additional resources to support the business. But as you go up the food chain wherein people are a more responsible and have the resources they need to take it very seriously and should invest in educating their employees on the dos and don'ts of food safety and hygiene standards. That's where the FoSTaC programme plays a very crucial role.

Does having a licence or a certification ensure dispensing of safe food?

Just because someone has a license it doesn't mean the food being dispensed is safe for consumption and vice-versa. Many people confuse safety for license/ documentary compliance. Delay in procuring a license is an issue faced largely by the newer restaurants. The business owner has invested significantly in setting up a modern kitchen and waiting for the authorities to audit and issue a license. The regulatory delays sometimes compels the business owner to start operations as license and related certifications are already work-in-progress. So, just because they don't have a license it doesn't mean s/he is dispensing unsafe/ unhygienic food.

The FSSAI has asked food delivery platforms to delist non-registered food business operators.

Delisting the FBOs is a good move but it will have some repercussions on the online food delivery platforms. That's because almost 50% of the paying food service operators will go out of system and that's certainly going to impact revenues. While due procedure is being followed for listing new FBOs, it will take time to get all the details from the existing ones who are now being delisted for lack of necessary documents/ certifications. Food delivery platforms are proactively working on finding a solution to the current challenge in the market. Initiatives include setting up a helpline, asking food service businesses to submit licences, assisting those who do not have one and so on. A lot of good work is happening in this space but it will take some time to streamline it all. While everyone is working on meeting the deadline set by FSSAI it may be a challenge to achieve it in such a short span.

What are the possibilities of FSSAI license and registration becoming mandatory irrespective if whether one is selling from food delivery platforms or not?

Food businesses license is mandatory for any outfit to function but that's not the case with the FSSAI certification, which is generally issued by third-party auditing agencies on behalf or in lieu of FSSAI. It's not mandatory at present but is very likely to become mandatory in the coming years. It cannot be done overnight because there isn't enough bandwidth to implement the same. Even FoSTaC was started as a voluntary programme two years ago and now it has been made mandatory.

Efforts are also being made to promote self vigilance through food safety display boards that tell the customer 10 things to expect (from the food handler at the outlet) in terms of food safety and hygiene. If there is a discrepancy the consumer can bring that to the notice of the food safety officer by calling or sending a visual on the contact details provided on the display board. This was voluntary earlier but is gradually being made mandatory across food catering businesses. The idea behind making it mandatory to have a FSSAI license/ registration number for a food business outlet is basically for quick and efficient traceability. For instance, if there is any issue with food being delivered from an FBO registered with one of the online food delivery platforms, it will become easy to track/ trace that FBOs through the FSSAI number. So there will be a central helpline as well as a local branch number to call and complaint. If there is no satisfactory resolution at the local level then the consumer can esclate it to FSSAI on the central number.

Won't it make doing business more challenging for food businesses?

The compliance requirements may appear to be blocks / hurdles initially but what's been done through all this is that the entire food business value chain is being brought into the FSSAI system. It definitely increases problems for the food business owners one way or the other. The FBOs will have no option but to quote their FSSAI registration number to be able to do business on any of the e-commerce / food delivery platforms. Not only that, it may also happen at a later stage that major suppliers will not be able sell to FBOs that do not have a FSSAI registration number. So whether one likes it or not, every FBO owner will be forced to come under the FSSAI system. Very much like what's being done through the goods and services tax (GST) number. While GST was rolled out much quicker, FSSAI will take it slow.

Hell’s kitchen

When a 1,000-seater restaurant at Ikea’s Hyderabad store, the Swedish retailer’s first India outlet that was launched early August with much fanfare, served a ‘worm’ in vegetarian biryani, social media went berserk. The much-affordable and do-it-yourself furniture range from the home solutions major weren’t discussed so much in detail, but the dead worm ‘crawled’ its way across India to incite hot debates on the pitiable safety standards in the country’s fast-growing food industry.

As per news reports, Nagpur-based Haldiram was the vegetable biryani supplier to the Hyderabad store. Of course, the incident drew so much ire that Ikea had to stop serving two items – vegetarian biryani and samosa at its restaurant. The retailer initiated an internal review to undertake “corrective actions” before they plan to reintroduce the items at a later stage.

Recent cases where foreign objects – lizards to be precise – were present in vada served at outlets in Ambernath and Badlapur, two extended suburbs of Thane in Maharashtra, sent a shock wave across the food industry. What is more appalling is that these incidents happened within the space of a month at two different outlets at nearby locations. The complete disregard for following the basic safety and hygiene practices has surely frightened customers.

The eateries have since been shut down and complaints have been filed against the outlet owners. However, the fact that such incidents continue to happen raises major concerns over food safety issues and practices associated with such eateries operating across the country.

Incidents of food contamination and adulteration in hotels, restaurants, snacking and fast food outlets are not new. Many such instances may have gone unreported or settled privately to avoid public outcry.

Change in the air 

A lot of such instances have started making headlines in the last few years, thus building awareness among consumers. Additionally, it is also building pressure on the food business owners to adhere to the prescribed safety and hygiene norms. This is evident from the fact that the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), which regulates over 28 lakh small, medium and big food businesses in the country, is handling around 10,000-12,000 complaints every month.

Occurrences of food contamination and adulteration in the organised/ branded food and beverage retailing businesses have a strong recall in the minds of the consumers. Shockingly though, the food safety and hygiene situations are much worse when it comes to the unorganised fast/snacking food eateries operating in every nook and corner. Since most instances never get addressed, owners of these food businesses don’t feel compelled to adopt basic safety and hygiene practices.

FSSAI is making efforts to put in place quality and hygiene standards for almost all food items to make them suitable for human consumption. But the enormous size of the industry poses a big challenge.

In a recent interaction with DNA Money, Pawan Agarwal, chief executive officer, FSSAI, had said there are over 3,000 food safety field offices under the state governments to carry out inspections and compliance. “Recently, we have got an additional close to 500 positions under FSSAI to help us in better enforcement. Next, we are going to build capacities of food businesses so that they can ensure safety by themselves.”

“We have started Food Safety, Training and Certification (FoSTaC) system. Under this, all food businesses need to have at least one person trained and certified as per our standards. Around 40,000 people, out of a total of 3.5 lakh, have been trained so far under this programme. The focus is largely on restaurants, hotel segment, manufacturing and processing units,” added Agarwal.

Food delivery under scrutiny

In July 2018, FSSAI issued a directive to food delivery platforms like Zomato, Swiggy, UberEats, Box8, Faasos, FoodCloud, Foodmongo, Foodpanda, JusFood and LimeTray to delist unregistered food business operations on their platform. The diktat was issued after complaints/video evidence posted on social networks by consumers about unhygienic operations and sub-standard food being delivered by certain food business operations (FBOs). In fact, earlier this month, the online food delivery platforms began the process of delisting thousands of FBOs that did not comply with FSSAI’s hygiene requirements. 

The FSSAI move is expected to see a significant churn in listings of food delivery platforms due to non-compliance of FBOs. While food delivery platforms are pushing the FBOs for listing, industry experts are of the view that a lot of the secret kitchen and sweatshop operations may not re-list on the platforms. This is mainly because such FBOs operate from desolate locations and do not invest in state-of-the-art kitchens, skilled/trained manpower and premises that conform to the basic food safety and hygiene standards.

“What percentage of the delisted FBOs will come back on the food delivery platforms is an area of concern. That’s because secret kitchens and sweatshops operate on a shoestring budget, it is unclear if every FBO would want to go through the hassles of incurring costs on dealing with a food safety officer, or for that matter, conforming to FSSAI guidelines. The delisted FBOs could go back to conducting business sans online food delivery platforms,” said a top industry executive.

Challenges galore

Although a system is being put in place by the regulator, it can’t pick up every sample as the entire ecosystem is very large and that many of these practices will take years to get embedded, he said.

While it’s mandatory for the organised and branded players to follow the standards/criteria being set by the FSSAI, the same is not true for their counterparts.

According to Ravi Wazir, a food and restaurant industry consultant, food safety and hygiene cannot be organised versus unorganised player topic. “It needs to be practised consciously by every single food and beverage operator regardless of whether s/he runs a sophisticated restaurant, a mid-level delivery kitchen or for that matter a simple snack-food cart on the street. After all, what use is the tastiest food if it isn’t safe to eat?” he said. 

Consumers have been very particular about contamination and adulteration at branded outlets because they are paying a premium and expect high standards of safety and hygiene levels to be followed. While a few years ago, the roadside or neighbouring snack food vendor was able to get away with unsafe and unhygienic practices, that’s not the case anymore as consumers are becoming more aware and not shying away from reporting such incidents to municipal authorities and FSSAI for taking necessary disciplinary actions.

Industry experts believe that eateries flaunting regulatory permissions and/or FSSAI certifications are not necessarily a sign that all safety and hygiene rules are being followed. “Food safety works best when a business owner sees it as his moral obligation to society rather than merely another legal requirement to comply with. Those who think that the cost of initiating and maintaining food safety standards is high will soon realise that the cost of not doing so is considerably higher. One incident can badly damage the brand’s reputation, sales and relationships and at times, even result in the business shutting down,” said Wazir.

What can be done to make food safety and hygiene practices a top priority in every food business owner’s mind? FSSAI’s Agarwal outlines, first and foremost, greater public awareness around food safety is vital. “Second, training is required to build capacities around food safety in food businesses. Third is to have more effective enforcement. Since we have a large number of businesses to regulate and have a small staff, we expect businesses to ensure food safety by themselves.”

The FSSAI is also moving towards making regulations and their enforcement more effective through large-scale surveillance and monitoring activities. “As far as the law is concerned, it does not make any distinction between branded or non-branded players. The whole effort on building capacity in the food business is around making businesses more responsible from the food safety angle so that unintentional incidents of food safety while manufacturing, transportation or storage could be avoided,” Agarwal added.

SERVICE INTERRUPTED

In July, FSSAI issued a directive to platforms like Zomato, Swiggy, UberEats, Box8, Faasos, FoodCloud, Foodpanda to delist unregistered food business operations on their platform 

The diktat was issued after complaints/video evidence posted on social networks about unhygienic operations and sub-standard food being delivered by certain food business operations

FSSAI’S HYGIENE RULE CODES

Keep premises clean and have regular pest control 

Use potable water for food preparation 

Cook food thoroughly 

Store veg and non-veg food, raw and cooked food in separate containers 

Keep hot food above 60 degree celsius, cold food below 5 degree celsius and frozen foods at or below -18 degree celsius 

Use separate chopping boards, knives, etc, for raw cooked and veg/ non-veg food 

Wear clean clothes/ uniform 

Wash hand before and after handling food and after using toilets, coughing, sneezing, etc 

Use water proof bandage to cover cuts or burn woods 

Do not handle food when unwell 

Keep separate and covered dustbins for food waste

PIPING HOT

28 lakh Small, medium and big food businesses regulated by FSSAI in the country

40,000 People trained under Food Safety, Training and Certification system

10,000-12,000 complaints FSSAI handling every month

Globally, food control systems in advanced nations have much more staff and resources. 

The United States has a staff of 14,200 in its two agencies, the USDA and FDA to look after food safety. 

Canada has over 4,000 staff in its food safety inspection services. 

Given the size of the country’s population, the geographical spread, diversity and the widespread prevalence of food businesses in the unorganised sector, India’s 824 posts in the country food safety authority is very low.

DINAKARAN NEWS

Smoke and Mirrors

Legal loopholes in plastic Ban

FDA ‘courts’ wrong: FSSAI

Acting on complaint from licensees, authority CEO advises state FDA against elevated desks for joint commissioners

The chief executive officer of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has instructed the state Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to remove its court-like set-up stating that this is wrong. The All Food and Drug Licence Holders Association (AFDLHA) had written to the FSSAI and the state commissioner of FDA claiming that the court-like setup in FDA offices is unethical and misleading. The AFDLHA had also claimed that even the joint commissioners of the FDA, who conduct hearings in these court-like set-ups are not empowered to do so according to the Food Safety Standards Act, 2006. The FSSAI ruling comes even as the state FDA commissioner is yet to look into the complaint.

AFDLHA president Abhay Pandey had written to the state FDA commissioner and FSSAI claiming that the arrangement of ‘court’ rooms in Pune, Thane, Nagpur and Nashik. Pandey stated that FDA joint commissioners have made its sitting arrangements like judges in courts with desks three to four feet above the ground with separate sitting arrangements for visitors at a level lower than the joint commissioner’s elevated position. He argued that this is misleading and is disrespectful behaviour towards the Indian judicial system.

Speaking on behalf of the AFDLHA, Pandey said, “This arrangement is only visible in the Maharashtra state FDA offices and there is no similar precedent in other states. The Food Safety Standards Act, 2006, states that when samples of food items are found suspicious during investigation and proved by lab reports, a case has to be filed against persons or institutes found guilty. As per the rule, the case has to be heard by the adjudicating officer who then penalises the culprit according to the case.”

Pandey added, “It is clearly stated in the 2006 Act that the adjudicating officer cannot be below the rank of additional district magistrate. The Maharashtra FDA conducts investigation of cases and notification is issued by the joint commissioners as they are adjudicating officers with a pay scale at par with additional district judges. “The director of FSSAI, who is the implementing officer of the Act had also clearly stated in a letter, ‘It should not be mistaken that a state government officer with a pay scale on a par with the ADM can be notified as adjudicating officer’, This letter had been written by SS Ghonkrokta, former director of FSSAI, to the state government in June 2011.”

Pawan Kumar Agarwal, chief executive officer, FSSAI, said, “We have discussed the issue and we are agreed that the arrangement is not right. We have discussed with the Maharashtra state government and also instructed them that the arrangements need to be reviewed. The discussion happened during a recent meeting involving all food safety commissioners of all states. We have also told them that there was a similar arrangement in the Gujarat FDA but they have changed it now. We have advised the Maharashtra FDA to change it also. The state FDA is examining our suggestion and we are sure they will change it.”

Pallavi Darade, state FDA commissioner said, “I am unaware of the issue and am yet to look into the complaint we received and the suggestion from the association. I am yet to go through the complaint. I cannot comment on this till I do so.”

Workshop on food safety to be held

Dehradun: Days after the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) asked restaurants to put up food safety display boards on their premises by October 15, the food safety cell of Uttarakhand will organise a workshop on the need to display safety boards and general hygiene and sanitary requirements in restaurants.

Food Safety Display Boards mention food safety and hygiene practices to be followed. Ganesh Kandwal, designated officer (food safety), Dehradun district, said, “The food safety cell of Uttarakhand will conduct a hand-holding workshop with the businessmen concerned on the need and importance of displaying safety boards and general hygiene and sanitary requirements in restaurants. We had already sent a communication to them in May but it got a lukewarm response.”

The FSSAI guidelines were issued earlier this year but were not being complied with. Failing to follow the guidelines will result in the cancellation of licences, the FSSAI has warned.