Need to add resource requirements

FSSAI has just completed 10 years and there are lots of expectations from regulators to successfully manage this huge country which has over 1.4 billion consumers. When PFA and other regulations got replaced by FSSAI in 2011, mostly we expected FSSAI to perform in line with repealed regulations and there is always a comparison with the old regulatory regime.
When FSSAI was established in the year 2006, the main objective was to consolidate various Acts and Orders that have hitherto handled food-related issues in various ministries and departments. 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 availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption.
Now the question arises – does FSSAI have adequate resources and man-power? Today FSSAI comes under the Ministry of Health and the budget of the Ministry of Health is above Rs. 40,000 crore per year which includes all aspects of Ministry of Health and Welfare services. Apart from this, individual states also have their own budget to support their activities. But what about the FSSAI annual budget? It is less than Rs 60 crore which is below 1.5% of the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s total budget.
We know prevention is better than cure. Can we aim for preventive control of diseases through food safety? As such, over 70% of diseases are borne through food and water. Thus the emphasis should be more on food safety for better prevention of disease. When we looked at the USFDA, apart from budget, the manpower employed by them shows the strength of their FDA.
In short, over 8,500 people are working for the USFDA in food-related work for a country with a population of only 30 crore. We need to consider the population of India viz.140 crore and then decide what the strength of the FSSAI and state FDA should be.
In India we have total 29 states even if we consider average strength of food safety staff of each state is 80 and then we are close to 2,320 and add FSSAI staff of 100 so total for India would be 2,500. Now the question is, is this strength adequate? Do we need more staff? More resources? More food safety facilities? The answer is Yes. We need it urgently.
By any standards, our FSSAI and state FDA are under-staffed and under-re-sourced. The government should look at this area very seriously and al-locate appropriate budget, resource and manpower for better implementation of food safety. However, even with all these constraints, our Food Safety and Standards Authority and respective FDAs are doing a very effective job in protecting consumer safety.
In conclusion for consumer safety of over 140 crore consumers, we need to strengthen FSSAI in all aspects.  The budget should be adequately increased for FSSAI and the state FDAs so that the officers can do their jobs effectively. The staff also should be increased so the basic work is not paralysed. The task is huge, but with effective vision and well-defined objectives, this task can be completed successfully.