Food safety: State in ninth place

Rachana Ramesh | NT
Bengaluru:

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has released the State Food Safety Index (SFSI) and Karnataka stands in 9th place among 17 larger states. The index reflects the overall performance of the states and union territories on five various parameters of food safety.

Compliance is the most important parameter with 30% weightage and it measures the overall coverage of food businesses in licensing and registration. Karnataka has received a score of 21 out of 30, same as the first-ranking state Tamil Nadu.

“All the food manufacturers in Karnataka have a license but our request is to make it perpetual. The clause that allows the authorities to cancel our license if we go against the restrictions remains undisturbed. There must be no question of renewal because it is very tedious for us,” said PC Rao, President, Bruhat Bengaluru Hotels’ Association.

This simplification of the licensing regime for food companies will improve the ease of doing business, which will further encourage many to obtain new licences, he said. This parameter also considers the inspections carried out for high-risk food businesses through Food Safety Compliance through Regular Inspections and (FoSCoRIS) and promptness in attending to the consumer grievances, and availability of help desk.

“We must submit yearly reports and if there is need or complaints, inspections will be conducted,” Rao said about inspections. “Karnataka has always followed the ‘customer is god’ idea and when it comes to the hospitality sector, we have always been the one to bring out the masters,” he added. What’s lacking is the Consumer Empowerment parameter which has a weightage of 20% and measures the performance of the state in various consumer empowerment initiatives of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

Karnataka has scored a 6.5 out of 20, pointing towards inadequacy of action taken for coverage of food fortification in open market, government safety net programmes and creating consumer awareness.

“Food fortification is very important and we have chosen five staples – wheat, rice, salt, milk and edible oil. It is a joint initiative conducted by the state government. For example, the public distribution departments and anganwadis will coordinate and promote food fortification. The ‘+F’ logo has to be notified to identify fortified foods,” said M Subburaj, Deputy Director of FSSAI.

Food Safety Connect, an FSSAI app looks out for consumer grievances, said Subburaj. “If you go to a restaurant and have a grievance, you must take pictures and upload them on the app. These complaints will directly be notified to the company and the food safety officers, and the company must rectify the issue in a stipulated time period,” he added. The consumer must be made aware of such highly useful government apps.