Weak Enforcement, Low Conviction Fuel Food Adulteration In State
When the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 came into effect, around a decade ago, citizens of the country felt empowered and enthusiastic about the fact that authorities would get more teeth to crack down against erring individuals or firms when found guilty in adulteration or misbranding of food or beverage.
Eleven years on, many states still struggle on the food safety front having failed to deter the erring individuals, firms and outlets from shunning the practice of adulterating our food and beverages for varied reasons.
Understaffed enforcement, unwillingness of the department to go after the erring parties, lack of required infrastructure and lower number of stringent actions against adulterators are now a standard status of marking these states’ food safety departments, entrusted to secure our food.
Let us take the case of government’s willingness to act against the food adulterating parties. According to a written reply given in the Lok Sabha by the Health Ministry on July 28 this year, in the last monsoon session, Odisha is one of the few states which acted least against the violators of food safety, along with states like West Bengal and Uttarakhand.
As per the Ministry’s statement, Odisha found 61 cases of food adulteration or misbranding in 2015-16 out of the 211 samples tested in the same year. However, it filed a case only against two errants. The same report, while talking about Karnataka, said the southern state tested 2,837 samples and found 341 adulterated/misbranded. However, it filed a case only against 138 erring parties.
So how can mischievous parties be deterred from adulterating, if stringent action is not taken against them or if they are let off without any case?
According to Odisha government’s own submission, the food safety violation cases in the state mostly related to supply of unsafe water in restaurants, misbranding of oil and milk brands, sweet shops, substandard packaging of mineral water among others.
As far as convictions in food adulteration or misbranding cases are concerned, the figures are more worrisome. According to the Ministry’s statement in the lower house which was based on the annual report of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), 2015-16 reported a total of 16, 133 cases of adulteration/misbranding but merely 540 cases, i.e., only 3.3 per cent of the convictions was achieved across the country.
So, what is ailing the food safety mechanism in our country? Who should be blamed for not taking care of our food safety? A state like Odisha is still floundering due to lack of required man power and food safety officials who can help in getting samples collected and tested and also lead to crack down on violators.
The Food Safety Act 2006 mandates equipping states with food safety officers, designated officers and food safety commissioners to take care of the food safety issue and take cognizance against the violators on the recommendations of the competent authorities. Lack of adequate officials in states like Odisha, West Bengal, Haryana and others,as per the law is marring the very spirit of the legislation.
However, there are other states too, which have been coming down heavily against the violators and booking the defaulters for the deeds of those who are playing with the health of the citizens of the country. For example, as per the 2016-17 annual report of the FSSAI, Uttarakhand saw 119 cases of adulteration and it filed 119 civil cases against all of them in the same year; similarly, Tamil Nadu, which received 970 such cases, registered a total of 861 cases against the violators.
FSSAI, the nodal organisation in the country entrusted with the task of defining and maintaining the food standards, in the recent past, has attempted with the required resources to ban potassium bromate in breads after reports of adverse effects on human consumption were reported. Likewise, it bolstered consumer’s faith after it banned potentially hazardous elements in noodles and other products by amending its list of permitted additives. Yet, many dimensions still needto be sorted.
Reports from organisations like Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) had in the past, put forth cases relating to mass consumption of adulterated milk, presence of harmful elements in soft drinks and tea among other reported cases of synthetic milk.
As per Section 59 of the Food and Safety Bill, a person found to be involved in food adulteration, misbranding or misleading advertisement could be jailed from six months to 10 years and even get sentenced to life imprisonment in cases of death. Similarly, fine from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh can be imposed.
However, lesser cases against the people flouting norms, lesser convictions and lack of regular scrutiny of food samples can hardly deter the adulterators, who often play with people’s health. It’s time to wake up and take action.
Feature Image Courtesy: BW Businessworld