Product Approval Committee of FSSAI-Alice in the wonderland situation!

While cornering all the glory for making Nestle bend their knees before them, FSSAI seems to have forgotten that it has lot to answer to the Indian public for its shoddy and unscientific working system. This has been brought out by a PIL regarding the messy system that prevails in that organization with corruption and callousness being the rule rather than an exception as being alleged. Most shocking is the allegation that the so called "product approval committee" which is vested with the power to clear new labels and standards for new products is manned by non-technical personnel or bureaucrats who sit on judgment regarding the merits of each application. These babus seem to think that they are super food scientists capable of taking decisions on a number of products developed by the industry from time to time.  While Delhi high court has taken up the issue for consideration, the matter is so serious that it may be more appropriate if Supreme court intervenes now to bring about some sanity in the food safety regime in the country. Read below to understand the gravity of the situation and the sorry mess this country has slid down during the last 7 decades of independence

"The Delhi High Court has issued notices to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and the Ministry of Health on a public interest litigation seeking an enquiry into alleged corruption in the FSSAI and a review of discrepancies in the food product approval system.

The matter is now posted for hearing on September 30. The petition, filed on July 1 by Pradip Chakraborty, a former Director of Product Approval at the FSSAI, states that only 370 products have been standardised as per the Food Safety Law while the rest are sent by manufacturers to the regulator's Product Approval Committee for clearance. Chakraborty alleged in his petition that there were instances of malpractices, mismanagement, and "possible acts of corruption and embezzlement of funds" involving senior officials at FSSAI. The Product Approval Committee mainly comprises non-technical personnel, according to the petitioner. The committee reviews applications of food companies that want to market products. The Maggi noodles product was approved by this committee."

The case assumes further significance and seriousness when one realizes that the litigant is no less a person than a former employee of the organization handling product approval applications. Even assuming that court does not sit on judgment regarding the merits or otherwise of the PIL, citizens in the country cannot help feeling let down by the governments whom they have been electing every five years with monotonous regularity. Out of the three stake holders in the food scenario, industry and consumers are being put at the mercy of a government organization which appears to be in shambles causing serious apprehensions about the  very future of this country. If the litigant is to be believed this system seems to serve only corrupt bureaucrats and criminal food fraudsters who are having a free run in the country with no fear of law or repercussions arising out of their dark deeds in pursuit of easy money.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

Food safety bill being "dressed up"- Will the Indian citizen ever be freed from consuming unsafe and substandard foods?

How serious is the federal government in India in safeguarding the health of its citizens? If past history is any indication all programs and activities emanating from Delhi have been focusing on rehabilitating the bureaucrats rather than putting in place a deterrent regime to punish adultrators and fraudsters who are violating even the diluted food standards with impunity without getting punished for their heinous crimes. With great fanfare the food safety act was promulgated by the previous government, a toothless body called food authority was set up and a technically "innocent" bureaucrat was promptly appointed as its chairman! Rest is history. Though maintaining the food quality and insuring food against adultration and fraud is a state subject, federal government comes into the picture for bringing in a uniform quality and safety frame work for the states to work in harmony. With strictures being passed by judicial courts one after the other during the last 2-3 years on the deficiencies of the act, it is a welcome development that the new government is mulling over its modifications seriously. Whether this exercise will end up producing a "mouse" at the end remains to be seen. Read further below regarding this development at Delhi. 

"The Government will revisit the food safety Act to make it more stringent to check growing instances of adulteration and contamination. "Two days ago, we set up a task force, which will submit its suggestions in 45 days, which will be then be put up in public domain for inviting comments. Imported food items will also be covered by this," Health Minister JP Nadda informed the Lok Sabha on Monday. Replying to a calling by PV Midhun Reddy of YSR Cong and Satyapal Singh of BJP, Nadda admitted that food adulteration and contamination were one reason for the rising burden of non-communicable diseases across the country. "It is also proposed to revisit the punishment stipulated for milk adulteration and make it more stringent," Nadda said, adding that the Government would focus creating infrastructure and manpower to face the challenge, such as setting up testing labs under public-private partnership. Nadda further added that 13,571 out of 72,200 food samples analysed in 2013-14 were adulterated, resulting in launch of 10,325 civil and criminal cases. He also informed the House that the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India was at present engaged in an exercise for harmonisation of the maximum residue limit of pesticides in food commodities. Earlier, Reddy said the threat from adulteration and contamination of water, milk, oil, etc, was "greater than the threat from terrorism", as it would take more lives in the long run. Terming the unregulated use of pesticides and antibiotics as "slow poison" and the use of hormone injections on cows to increase milk yield, as a more "serious crime than cow slaughter", Reddy particularly urged the Government to ensure "Shudh Bharat" (Pure India)" along with the initiative, "Swachch Bharat." 

The statistics put out by the minister tells a pathetic story about the safety programs of the government. In a country like India with a population of 1.2 billion the number of samples picked up for testing was relatively small working out to 200 samples a day across 30 states, again a paltry 7 samples per state! One wonders what type of inspection thousands of so called "Food Inspectors" in the pay roll of the states are doing if not checking foods in the market for quality and safety violations? Has the surveillance system in the country failed miserably? This is all the more appalling considering that more than 70% of food industry is in the hands of the so called "unorganized sector" which produces hundreds of diverse products with indifferent quality and safety credentials. When an enlightened law maker from Andhra Pradesh stated that adultrated foods pose much greater threat to the country than that posed by terrorists, we have to applaud him for stating the obvious. . 

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

A BUREAUCRAT'S DAY DREAMING!-THE NIFTEM SYNDROME

The quality of any material is decided by the user and if the manufacturer uses superlative words to describe his product without any proof, normally intelligent buyer will hesitate to bite the bait! This is a universal truth and it does not require any special training to see through such glib promotional efforts. One is reminded of the above maxim when recently GOI babus in the food industry ministry boasted about a "world class" institute being set up by them for training food technologists and entrepreneurs. According to its claim the new institute, fancifully called NIFTEM, is all set to "admit" students from the year 2011. It is difficult to comprehend the mind of a bureaucrat when such announcements are made as a matter of routine without realizing the ground realities concerning setting up of an academic institution, that too for producing technocrats and entrepreneurs. Here is the gist of the announcement which was splashed across some of the major news papers recently.

"To attract bright young minds towards research in food processing and technology, and also to hone their entrepreneurship and managerial skills, the ministry of food processing industries (MOFPI) is all set to come up with a world-class institute in the country that will start admissions from 2011. It will be established in Sonepat, Haryana. "The institute, known as National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM), will be the first of its kind in the country to be offering a number of programmes that will support innovative research activities at under-graduate, post-graduate and PhD level," said joint secretary, MOFPI, Ajit Kumar while talking to TOI on Monday. The admissions would be done through a national-level entrance test and would be open for students of science stream with physics, chemistry, maths or biology combination at intermediate (10+2) level. "We are also trying to reserve some seats for students who opt for food technology and qualify in the All- India Pre-Medical Test ( AIPMT) and All-India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) conducted by CBSE," he added".

Probably because of the association with an American University for establishing the institute, the ministry seems to be cock sure about the success of the venture. It has taken decades for some of the reputed food technology training institutes in India to establish even the minimum facilities required for turning out graduates acceptable to the food industry and even here there are complaints that these graduates do not measure up to the expectations of the user industry. Two of the courses run by the food research institute at Mysore, evolved during nineteen sixties and later in nineteen eighties are internationally recognized because of the fabulous facilities created for hands-on training and involvement of hundreds of specialist scientists available on hand from the research departments of the organization. The post graduate food technology program and the milling technology diploma offered by this organization have proven to be world class, unlike the unproven claims made by the GOI ministry! There are hundreds of graduates and diplomates from other countries who will vouchsafe for the credentials of these courses at Mysore. It is unfortunate that precious resources are being wasted creating a duplicate organization with high pitched "paper" claims!

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACKWARD!-THE BUREAUCRATIC WORLD

The incredible irony that pervades the bureaucratic world has been brought out recently by no less a person than one of the glorified international servants working with Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). That the "lethal" combination of politicians and bureaucrats can stifle any initiative in favor of the helpless denizens through lobbying, prevarication, delays and lack of follow up action is brought out by the latest revelation from one of the responsible officials of FAO.

Maybe now, that the accusations come from the director of the FAO Animal Production and Health Division FAO, Dr Samuel C. Jutzi, more people will start to open their eyes to this problem. The official explained recently in London, UK, that the agricultural industry and the food production industry are the largest consumers of fresh water, some of the world's most important polluters, the largest threat to biodiversity, and the main reason why obesity exists today as an epidemic. Regardless of these negative effects they have on the world, corporations in these fields are allowed to get away with what they do simply because they have enough money to stifle the legislative and decision-making processes. The main mechanism of action that lobby groups use is the delay. Some norms have been jammed in various institution for years, while companies that would have been affected by them continue to thrive. They also prefer to "water down" proposed decisions, which means that they eliminate the points that would do most good to the world, and most harm to their quarterly profits. These groups are also successful because FAO's decision-making process is based on consensus. If two or three governments are persuaded not to vote for a measure, the decision is abandoned. "I have now been 20 years in a multilateral organization which tries to develop guidance and codes for good agricultural practice, but the real, true issues are not being addressed by the political process because of the influence of lobbyists, of the true powerful entities," Jutzi said.

The tortuous progress of the Food Safety Bill through the legislative arms in the US, in spite of the latest recall of half a billion Salmonella tainted eggs from the market, brings out more graphically the strangle-hold of vested interests on the policy makers in that country. The widespread use of genetically modified foods in the US is also a standing testimony to the economic clout of the powerful industry lobby which further illustrates the helplessness of common man in deciding his own destiny. While it is understandable that a country like the US can decide for itself what it wants, it is unfortunate that the influence of money is spreading on the international arena also affecting the fate of billions of people due to wrong and inappropriate decisions.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com