Bhubaneswar: Food safety chapters will soon find a place in academic curricula at school levels in an attempt to intensify food security awareness among the people and Food Business Operators (FBOs) in the state.
The decision was taken at a state-level Food Safety Advisory Committee meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy here, Wednesday.
Tripathy directed the Health and Family Welfare (H&FW) department to constitute a technical committee for working out the methods for extending the outreach of food testing activities by leveraging the existing labs of different departments and universalities.
He also directed the officials to strengthen the surveillance measures. “With the increasing population in cities and growth centres, food safety has become more critical both from the view points of individual and public health,” he said.
The Chief Secretary directed the state police to mainstream the drive against adulteration in their work schedule. Food safety officers were asked to intensify their field visits and inspections.
Food safety commissioner Yamini Sarangi said that Odisha has secured 5th position nationally in conduct of high-risk inspections through the application of mobile app technology.
With different food safety measures, Odisha has upgraded its position to 13th in National Food Safety Index ranking for the year 2019-20 from 26th position in the previous year.
The state food testing laboratory has enhanced its capacity to meet requirement of National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratory (NABL) and has also applied for its registration.
Online system for registration and licensing of FBOs has already been rolled out resulting in enhancement of revenue generation.
Sarangi said that revenue rose to around Rs 7.70 crore in FY 2019-20 from Rs 2.18 crore in FY 2018-19 registering a growth of around 82 per cent.
There had been a steady increase in number of registered and licensed FBOs in the state during the last four years.
The total number of registered FBOs increased from 5,026 in the FY 2016-17 to 57, 827 in the 2019-20, she said.
After gaining the registration of Food Safety Standard Authority of India (FSSAI), the State Food Testing Lab is now on its path towards acquiring the accreditation of NABL.
Odisha, in collaboration with FSSAI, has initiated steps for addressing the gaps in food safety ecosystem of the state and for promoting the culture of safe and wholesome food.
The mobile food testing laboratory has been rolled out for food testing in different melas, public celebrations and festivals. So far, 1,768 samples have been tested in this mobile lab. Under clean street food hub initiative, around 30 food vendors have been registered and trained. The programme will be rolled out shortly.
Food safety director Pradeep Kumar Mohapatra said that special surveillance drives were taken on edible oil, milk products and additional nutritional food samples during the current year.
In 2018-19, as many as 1,926 legal and surveillance samples were picked and tested out of which 568 were found either adulterated or misbranded.
In 2019-20, the sample collection was enhanced to 2,902 out of which 596 samples were found either adulterated or misbranded, Mohapatra said.
“In last four years, 58 criminal and 165 civil cases have been instituted against the offenders and Rs 4,24,000 have been realized towards penalties and fines,” he said.
