Bringing change in food safety culture

The enactment of Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 (FSSA 2006) completed 10 years last month. The Parliament passed the Act, which received President’s assent on August 23, 2006. With this Act India took a new and different step towards bringing in a complete change in the nation’s food safety culture. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the nation’s food regulator, set up un-der the Act, organised a programme to celebrate the decade of the Act and launched many new initiatives to spread the food safety culture in the country.
The Act was passed to integrate and streamline many Acts, regulations and orders dealing with various commodities governed by different ministries creating varied standards leading to confusion and restricting innovation in the sector. There was demand from the industry and many others for a single unified law for food safety. “Not many years back, India was looking at multiple legislations such as FPO Act, PFA Act, BIS Act etc. All India Food Processors Association was one the key industry association that made a call to have a single legislation to be put in place,” said Sagar Kurade, President, All India Food Manufacturers’ Association.
He said the purpose of the Act was to avoid confusion of multiple standards as well as jurisdiction that prevailed then. While FSS Act may have had its teething issues but its need is certainly justified especially considering the fact that it aims to strengthen food control systems to protect public health, prevent fraud & deception, avoid food adulteration and facilitate trade, added Kurade.
The Act not only repealed the old different Acts and made a unified single Act, but it brought in change in the basic thinking about food safety. It shifted the focus from regulatory regime to self-compliance and self-regulation and gave stress on setting science-based standards and doing risk assessment. Another important difference between the old Acts and this Act is that all types of food de fined in the Act, proprietary foods, GM foods, novel foods, dietary supplements, nutraceuticals and traditional foods have been brought under it.
“The Act has changed the way food industry was working earlier. The focus of business has shifted from mere-ly keeping food adulteration at bay to a rather holistic approach of upholding food safety standards. The FSSAI has made stellar efforts at one end while the industry has self-mandated certain standards,” observed, Niranjan Nadkarni, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Management, TÜV SÜD South Asia.
Referring to the standards, Ajit Singh, President, Health Foods and Dietary Supplements Association (HADSA), India, said, “There are always a few mischief makers who spoil the reputation for everyone. We can’t as an industry or as association weed them out, we can only discourage to become a member but their mischief may carry on. Here’s where the government can help by making sure that the standards are implemented so the 80-90% of the companies which are good ones are supported and the bad ones are out.”
Though the enactment of the Act completed 10 years, the Act actually came into effect from August 5, 2011, five years after it was passed, following the setting up of FSSAI which framed the rules and regulations under the Act. In this period the implementation was mainly restricted to setting the standards, framing regulations and setting up basic systems. The FSSAI constituted scientific committee and scientific panels to provide scientific opinion to the authority on wide range of subjects that are within the mandate of the authority. This all has created a firm foundation to create the structure now.
“The 10 year span of FSS Act appears to be dedicated to a learning process. But food safety in the law demands much more stringent definition based on the convenience to select safe food in the market,” commented Ramesh Sharma, writer on food issues.
Echoing the feelings of the industry, Amit Chopra, VP/GM and Managing Director, Thermo Fisher Scientific India, said “FSSAI has been playing a crucial and pivotal role in establishing and enforcing norms and standards to ensure healthy, clean and safe food from ‘Farm to Fork’.” When the new government assumed power at the Centre, among its various programmes it gave importance to the growth of food processing industries and food safety. In September 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Abe signed the joint statement which included highlights of the importance of two countries cooperation in the area of agriculture and food.
This cooperation envisaged establishing food value chain through public and private partnership of two countries, and ensuring food safety could be an imperative part of this bilateral cooperation. As an example of cooperation in this area, Japan is, based on its experience, offered bi-lateral cooperation though ODA (Official Development Assistance) aiming at enhancing capability of human re-sources engaging in both administration and technical affairs sectors.
Human resources, inadequate infrastructure and capacity building are still considered to be some of the important shortcomings in the effective implementation of the FSSA by FSSAI and state governments which are supposed to enforce the Act. Listing the challenges in this regard, Kurade said, “Since inspection and enforcement is the dependable method to prevent malpractices within food industry, there is a need for knowledgeable and trained inspectors.”
Chopra pointed out, “Though faced by multiple challenges, such as shortage of quality laboratories, limited skilled manpower and food safety inspectors, over the past 10 years FSSAI has been working actively towards strengthening the ‘food testing system’ within the country and laying down science based standards.”
Nadkarni pointed out that in a rapidly developing economy, the demand for food of high quality standards was directly proportionate to the food safety infrastructure in the country. At one point in time, food testing was mainly driven to ensure that the consumer was protected from adulteration by food producers’ vying to generate larger margins. However, the scenario has evolved since the government made commendable efforts to formalise the food safety infrastructure to cater to this demand, added Nadkarni.
“There is a need for us to increase the infrastructure for testing food safety, for all stakeholders to benefit from the strong growth in this sector,” said Chopra. He added though faced by multiple challenges, such as shortage of quality laboratories, limited skilled manpower and food safety inspectors, over the past 10 years FSSAI has been working actively towards strengthening the “food testing system” within the country and laying down science based standards.
There are many other challenges like lack of control on the quality of irrigated water being used can be problematic for the FBOs, said Kurade. Holding the processed food industry responsible without any liability on part of commodity cultivators and suppliers will make it difficult to enforce the regulation, especially among the SME sector, he added.
Expressing similar sentiments, Sharma said FSSAI has to face a big challenge on this issue. He said, “Indian food is now proved to be pesticide-free or organic in nature, but probability of its becoming prone to aflatoxin growth and micro-nutrient mineral deficiency has per-haps increased due to increasing soil non-conservation and deforestation.”
Using the opportunity of completion of the decade of the FSSA 2006, FSSAI has launched many new initiatives to spread the message and culture of food safety as every place where food is cooked and/or consumed including home, school, canteens, restaurants and roadside food vendors. It has launched 10@10 programme in which even the corporates from the food sector have been given six options to participate in the programme.
The thrust of the various activities of the FSSAI is on capacity building of the people employed in canteens, restaurants etc. and on self-regulation by making them appoint food safety supervisors from among their staff and improving lab infrastructure.
Regarding the labs Chopra said, “There is a need for us to increase the infrastructure for testing food safety, for all stakeholders to benefit from the strong growth in this sector. Adopting rapid and innovative (off-site & on-site) technologies will further help to ensure quick and reliable results in testing of farm and finished products. Our regulatory authority can further leverage relationships and networking with analytical vendors, testing laboratories, research & educational institutes, food man-ufacturers, government bodies and encourage their participation in helping drive food safety awareness, compliance and achieving its objective of skilled resources.”
Kurade suggested that food laws should be simplified. India is a vast country with number of regional languages. Communication through only English language may lead to misinterpretation especially among the less educated entrepreneurs, he added. FSSAI has decided to create a database of all the regulations and standards etc. which would be easily accessible to the stakeholders.
While celebrating the decade of the Act FSSAI has also developed its vision for the next decade and started planning programmes accordingly. Involvement of stakeholders, which is one of the essences of the Act, is the main part of the programme that is being launched. It is important to have that as a basis since the processed food sector is expected to grow not only volume-wise but also product wise as many domestically developed new products and many new imported products are expected to be launched in future. That may pose some new challenges for the regulator. But involvement of the stakeholders can turn challenges into opportunities.
Nadkarni concluded, “The coming few years will be immensely exciting for the food industry in India and it is heartening to witness the food businesses proactively adopting food safety. The coming days will witness the evolution of the sector like never before as the industry, regulators and consumers work towards achieving a common goal of safety through constructive collaboration.”