Manish Kumar, OP
New Delhi, June 2: The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) claims that Orissa has recorded 61 cases of food safety violations in 2015-16.
The FSSAI sources revealed this in response to an RTI application filed by this correspondent seeking data on a number of cases of food and beverage adulteration and misbranding detected in Orissa through the food safety offices and the action taken in this regard.
The regulator said that the latest data pertaining to 2016-17 is not available with the office. However, the data pertaining to 2015-16 claims that in Orissa a total of 211 food samples were tested for adulteration/misbranding of which 61 were found to be non-conforming with the Food Safety Standards Law.
The RTI reply from the department also claims that the state government had registered two such cases for prosecution while penalty was imposed on a single erring individual/firm.
However, the Orissa State Food Safety Commission seems to have worked out on less number of cases in 2015-16 as compared to 2014-15. As per information from FSSAI, in 2014-15 Orissa tested 544 samples and found 112 cases of adulteration/misbranding while in 2015-16 the department tested only 211 samples – only 39 per cent of the number of samples tested in the previous year.
As per the Food Safety and Standards Act, the Food Safety Commissioners in states can initiate prosecutions against the adulterators and people responsible for violation of the norms on the basis of findings by food inspectors, lab tests and recommendations of the designated officers.
However, a number of food safety officers’ posts are reportedly lying vacant in the state which makes the work of food testing and action against the guilty a tough task. The state also has dearth of food analysts who can check the food samples whether they are safe for human consumption.
