Manpower crunch hits BMC’s food safety measures hard

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Bhubaneswar: Satiating gastronomical needs with savoury cuisines available outside may soon become a health hazard as the quality of city food is on a decline due to lack of Food Safety Officers (FSOs) with the civic authority.
According to Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s (FSSAI) guidelines, a city must have one FSO for every 1,000 Food Business Operators (FBO). However, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) is operating with a single FSO for 13,000 licensed FBOs in the capital city.
“In other metropolitan cities as Kolkata or Delhi there are about 34 to 40 FSOs working with the authorities but Bhubaneswar has only one who is also given an additional charge for the entire Khurda district,” said a source at the BMC.
The FSSAI divides FBOs in a city into two categories— registered and licensed. Those with an annual turnover of more than `12,00,000 are required to have a licence with the civic authority while those having an output of less than `12,00,000 are needed to have their business registered.
The apathy for the food safety by the BMC could be understood from the fact that the 13,000 licenced FBO, 1,400 to 1,600 registered food operators and more than 3,000 small-scale street vendors in the city are under the check of just one FSO. The lack of manpower has resulted in rampant sale of spurious and unadulterated food items right under the administration’s nose.
Responding to this, city health officer Rama Chandra Rout said, “Despite being understaffed we ensure that the food quality isn’t compromised. We make rounds for four days in the BMC areas and two days in the Khurda district. During the hockey world cup we inspected all major hotels and fined those who did not comply to our guidelines.”
However, a former health officer at the BMC argued that food quality of the Capital City at different eateries has hit an all-time low. “Restaurants and street vendors are lading food items with excess of oil and spices. This may pass the food safety instructions but is harmful to health,” he said.
Adding to this Divyaranjan Sathpaty a senior surgeon and physician at private hospital here said despite being health conscious, people are left with no other choice rather buy and eat such food. “Consuming poor quality food can lead to cancer, food poisoning and outbreak of diseases as cholera or diarrhea,” he mentioned.
Meanwhile, crunch of manpower for food safety seems to have affected not only the city but the entire state. According to the source there are only 19 FSOs for 30 districts in the state. While most of the officers are given an additional charge almost none of them have technical support staff with them.