A Maharashtra Cadre IAS
officer of 2005-batch Mr. Tukaram Mundhe, posted presently in Mumbai as the
Commissioner of Food and Drug Administration of the state, is currently the
talk of the town for very good reasons. He has spearheaded an aggressive state-wide
crackdown on food safety and adulteration violations. Shouldn't his
counterparts in other states and union territories undertake regular campaigns
against the adulterators at least with the same intensity and integrity, if not
better?
Undoubtedly, food adulteration
has been one of the biggest health problems of our country. It is found that
many of the stomach, heart, kidney and liver-related medical issues are also
closely linked with food adulteration. Actually, adulterated food items affect
our body slowly, but surely like slow poisoning. The growing number of patients
particularly in cities is the vindication of this fact. The quality of mid-day
meals being served to millions of students in government schools has been a
cause of concern because of adulteration issues as well. The media reports of
children falling sick after consumption of mid-day meals come almost regularly
from this or that part of the country. Actually, the malaise of food
adulteration is very deep-rooted and quite widespread.
Leaving aside for now the issues concerning deceptive advertising and marketing, and also pricing of a number of products being used by children and ladies in particular, it is normally found that certain daily use items like milk, paneer, ghee and other dairy products, edible oils, sweets, honey and spices are the soft targets of adulteration. It is now a common knowledge that even unclean water is mixed in milk; artificial milk is prepared by mixing detergent, urea etc., Similarly, adulteration in spices, honey, ghee and edible oils has become common. It is shocking that adulterated items are found to have toxic chemicals too, which are very dangerous for our health.
Yes, we come to know about occasional raids
in hotels, restaurants, shops and go downs by the food safety personnel,
particularly before prominent festivals in different parts of the country where
items of human consumption are found in adulterated forms in most of the cases.
Shouldn’t such exercises be undertaken regularly across the country? Are such
raids and inspections conducted strictly as per the mandate of FSSAI?
It is rightly said that
awareness is half the solution. As such, it is worth knowing that the Food
Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has been established under the
Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, which consolidates various acts and orders
that had hitherto handled food-related issues across various Ministries and
Departments. The FSSAI has been created for laying down science-based standards
for articles of food and to regulate their manufacture, storage, distribution,
sale, and import, to ensure the availability of safe and wholesome food for
human consumption. The FSSAI and the State Food Safety Authorities enforce the
various provisions of the Act. The FSSAI operates under the administrative
control of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. Its
head office is situated in New Delhi. The Chairperson and Chief Executive
Officer of FSSAI are appointed by the Government of India.
There is no denying the fact that FSSAI has a very challenging role to ensure implementation of its own prescriptions and regulations on the ground. Yes, being the principal nodal agency, FSSAI is duty bound to coordinate appropriately with Food Safety Authorities of the states for uniform, effective and visible enforcement of the law in all places of the country. Adequate man-power should not be a constraint in this regard, as keeping every citizen in good health is very necessary. The central government and all the state governments including union territories must come on the same page to include this in their top-priority list for execution in reality.
The media – print, electronic and social, and civil society have a
very significant role to play in this matter. To start with, programs of public
awareness about the adverse impact of food adulteration, coverage of violations
of FSSAI norms in the media prominently on a regular basis and drawing the
attention of concerned food safety officials on visible violations can be
initiated and sustained.
As always, I'm keen to know what you think on this subject. Hence, I request you to post your comments to share your valuable opinion. (hellomilansinha@gmail.com)
