Many of the recent initiatives of Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) can be seen in positive light and directed towards growth of the regulatory body. The regulatory body has now gained momentum and will be comprehended by the industry and consumers alike. To avoid the looming uncertainty with respect to regulations, FSSAI has planned on integration of food standards, bettering food testing labs, training and certification and partnering with food companies to promote self-regulation among business.
According to Pawan Agarwal, CEO of FSSAI, these initiatives will ensure total alignment among the stake-holders and have the same vision to achieve the mammoth task of food safety. Other than these initiatives the FSSAI is also planning on partnering with leading companies to set up corporate training centers, food safety training in their entire value chain including marketing campaigns, be-sides participating in research, surveillance and survey activities.
All these initiatives and actions are aimed at ensuring safety and health of consumers. Regulations also bring about fair trade, harmonisation, uniformity in practices, price control etc. Thus, regulations are important holistically.
10 years in action
During the last 10 years FSSAI has put forth many good reforms in the area of food and nutraceuticals. Since its inception FSSAI has drafted many guidelines for nutraceuticals, import of food and nutraceuticals, regularised food safety etc. One of the most recent reforms being, colour coded food safety display boards. All food business operators are required to put up colour coded food safety display boards on their premises. These boards will include FSSAI license number, instructions for food hygiene and safety practices along with consumer feedback de-tails. FSSAI had also launched FSSAI Product Approval System (FPAS), on-line registration & product approval process to make product approval and registration easier.
FSSAI is also looking at harmonising with CODEX for better regulations of food additives. They have come up with a draft as well for providing definitions for milk and milk products and guidance on the use of ‘dairy terms’ on labels in relation to foods to be offered to consumer or for further processing. The consumers will be able to judge the product after the draft comes into force. It also mentions labelling of milk and milk products.
In order to attract investments the Ministry of Food Processing Indus-tries, Government of India has already taken up initiatives such as approving a number of food parks and coming up with schemes for development of food processing to address constraints in food processing sector.
FSSAI has been working on stream-lining the process and the way food safety is handled in India, but from the point of view of industry some-how the connection between Science and Business is still missing. From the point of view of consumers, as they are the decision makers in nutraceuticals and food business there is a need to emphasise their safety and pay attention to their interests. Today the major challenges that we face in the regulatory front are lack of speed and lack of trust and under-standing on behalf of the regulatory authorities.
Challenges faced by FSSAI
FSSAI has been faced with many challenges since it came into force and, as new regulations are being formed there are lots of things factoring that affect the way FSSAI functions. Some of the challenges faced by FSSAI are:
Ensuring consumer safety
All activities carried out by FSSAI as well as the Acts and regulations that are developed are done keeping in mind consumers’ safety since consumers are one of the important stakeholders. Ensuring delivery of quality and safe products to consumers is essential. Along with this educating the consumer is equally important, as an aware and well-informed consumer will understand, demand safe food and spread awareness about food safety among others.
Handling increasing work load
The number of FBO (Food Business Operators) registrations and approvals for products is ever increasing. A lot of registrations and approvals have piled up and piling up with FSSAI. At the authority’s end there is delay in clearing these files. FSSAI does not have enough manpower as well as the necessary infrastructure required to handle this amount of work. In terms of the infrastructure the existing testing labs need to be adept in handling all the required tests and analysis for food and related products. Also, monitoring and surveillance of these labs is necessary but difficult at the moment.
Gaps in existing structure
There are certain gaps in the way FSSAI has been currently structured. Government should focus on policy making while regulators are supposed to frame the policy. The regulator should not only act independently but it should also be doing so for the interest of consumers and the industry.
Organogram of FSSAI
Extending this thought the current chairperson said in an interview to a newspaper, that the central organisation can draw upon talent from within and from outside academia, industry and so on so forth and frame standards that are appropriate for the country. He also stated that it would be difficult for them to pay attention to or handle each and every issue. According to the chairman, at the authority’s end this is top priority.
With regards to testing and analysis as well there is a question of whether to use government labs or private ac-credited labs. All over India there are only 82 NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration) laboratories for testing food and related products. The Northern region has the highest number of NABL-ac-credited labs (28). While the western region has 25 labs, the southern region has 24. There are five labs in the eastern region. For food testing laboratories, three wings are mandatory viz. chemical, microbiology and heavy metals testing. Many of the existing labs don’t have all the three divisions or wings. This apparently slows down the process of testing and increases time required to get the products tested.
Solving manpower issue
As suggested by Chairman Ashish Bahuguna in one of his interviews, there are two ways to deal with issues of lack of manpower and/or capabilities of the existing team in carrying out various activities undertaken by FSSAI. One way is to get more investment from Central government. If new manpower is to be hired then a lot of investment will be required to support it.
Another way is to enhance the skills and capabilities of the existing team, in order to make them competent in handling FSSAI activities, issues and consumer and industry queries. For example: In case of import related issues, the existing import personnel (customs authorities, officers) of a state can handle and work on FSSAI related queries and issues as well. Since they already have expertise in dealing with imports they would only be required to enhance their capacity and skills to deal with food related import issues.
Solving facility issues
Only 82 testing laboratories are not sufficient and more labs should be made available for food and nutraceuticals testing for product approval. Also, many of the existing laboratories are not equipped to carry out all the tests and analysis required for FSSAI product approval.
Hence such laboratories need to be upgraded so that all tests are done faster and results are more accurate. To achieve all this, a multipronged approach involving the State as well as Central government and the food industry is essential. As of now a more feasible approach would be upgrading existing labs and making government and private labs adequate for FSSAI related analysis and testings.
Way forward
For industry growth and consumer safety, regulations are important. In order for this to happen the FSSAI must pay close attention to and rectify existing issues of manpower and infrastructure. For any regulation to prosper and be effective all the aspects of an ecosystem i.e. industry, consumers and regulations must work in correlation with each other. Perhaps at the outset we have been considering FDA as an extension but if we take a closer look it is an established regulatory segment. Now considering FDA as a part of food and nutraceutical’s ecosystem, along with industry and consumers, FSSAI is all set to achieve its goals of consumer health through quality and safety of food.