Hard truths
Vijay
Sardana and Priyanka Mathur Sardana shed light on various issues concerning
the development of a food safety system in India
Every
country is developing systems to ensure that its citizens must get safe
food to eat. But the recent controversies on quality and safety of carbonated
soft drinks, liquid explosives, bird flu, food poisoning in mid-day
meals, import of fruits and vegetables without pest-risk analysis and
many more issues, cases and follow-up actions by various State governments
raise the issues of criteria in decision-making process in the country
on sensitive and complicated issues related to food safety, food trade
and public health. Now, Parliament has passed a new bill on 'Food Safety
and Standards' and we decided to start a series of articles to address
various issues in the food safety and standards bill and other relevant
issues of national interests related to food laws and policies. The
purpose is to generate a healthy debate on how to develop a reliable
food safety system in the interest of public health in India.
The food
safety system in India
The Indian Constitution prescribes the responsibilities of the
Government's three branches: executive, legislative and judicial, which
all have roles that underpin the nation's food safety system. Parliament,
the legislative branch, enacts statutes designed to ensure the safety
of the food supply. Parliament also authorises executive agencies of
National and State governments to implement statutes and they may do
so by developing and enforcing regulations. When enforcement actions,
regulations or policies lead to disputes, the judicial branch is charged
to render impartial decisions. Generally, Indian laws, statutes and
executive orders are made public through gazette notifications by established
procedures to ensure that regulations are developed in a transparent
and interactive manner with public participation.
This
is mainly due to two factors:
What should
be the characteristics of a good food safety system?
Any
good food safety system should include the following essential characteristics:
• Separation of powers among three branches of law-making,
that is, executive, legislative and judicial
• Transparency
• Science-based
decision-making
• Public
participation in decision-making. Any efficient food safety system should
be guided by the following principles:
• Only safe and wholesome foods may be marketed
• Regulatory decision-making in food safety is science-based
• The Government has enforcement responsibility
• Manufacturers, distributors, importers and others are expected
to comply and are liable if they do not
• The regulatory process should be transparent and accessible to
the public.
As a result, the Indian system
should have high levels of public confidence but we all know the ground
reality as of today.
How
an efficient food safety system works?
Precaution and science-based
risk analyses are long-standing and important traditions of food safety
policy and decision-making in many developed countries. Many food safety
statutes, regulations and policies are riskbased and have precautionary
approaches embedded in them. The food safety agencies should have wellqualified
science and public health experts, who work co-operatively to ensure
the safety of food for public health. Scientists from outside the Government
should be regularly consulted to provide additional recommendations
regarding technical and scientific methods, processes and analyses used
by regulators.
The
cutting-edge science that informs
regulators should be routinely discussed and shared internationally
through interactions with organisations like the Codex Alimentarius
Commission, World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization
and the International Office for Epizootics. The food safety systems
world over also routinely and effectively deals with technological advances,
emerging problems and food safety incidents. Due to the threat of bio-terrorism,
currently there is great focus on early warning systems about pathogens,
toxins, environmental contamination and residues of agro-chemicals in
food. The legislationgranting authorities to agencies generally enable
them to revise regulations and guidance consistent with advances in
technology, knowledge and need to protect consumers.
National
food agencies are accountable to the Head of the State, to the Parliament,
which has oversight authority, to the courts which review regulations
and enforcement actions and to the public, which regularly exercises
its right to participate in the development of statutes and regulations
by communicating with legislators, commenting on proposed regulations
and speaking out publicly on food safety issues.
Prevailing
food safety system in India – issues and concerns
On paper, the Indian food safety system isbased on strong, flexible
and science-based national and state laws and industry's legal responsibility
to produce safe foods. National, state and local authorities have complementary
and inter-dependent food safety roles in regulating food and food processing
facilities to provide a comprehensive and effective system.
Principal
national regulatory organisations responsible for providing consumer
protection in India are the Department of Health and Family Welfare,
Department of Prevention of Food Adulteration, Department of Agriculture
Marketing and Inspection, Bureau of Indian Standards, Department of
Consumer Affairs and many other agencies. The Department of Customs
assists the regulatory authorities by checking and occasionally detaining
imports based on guidance provided.
Effectiveness
of the law is directly related
to implementation of the law. The ineffective implementation of
the statutes and the food safety system over many years has resulted
in very low levels of public confidence in the safety of food in India.
Joint Parliamentary Committee Report also indicated dissatisfaction
on quality of food available to citizens.
Unfortunately,
many agencies and offices have no effective food safety missions within
their research, education, prevention, surveillance, standard-setting
and/or outbreak response activities, including ICMR, CFTRI, ICAR agricultural
universities, statesupported agricultural universities, APEDA, MPEDA,
BIS and so on.
The PFA
department is charged with protecting consumers against impure, unsafe
and fraudulently labelled food other than in areas regulated by other
acts. Mainly, the areas of fresh produce are short of manpower. In fact,
these are running the department with retired officers because of ban
on new recruitment.
One area
where some effectiveness is visible is that no food item may be marketed
legally in India if it contains a food additive or residues not permitted
by PFA or a pesticide residue without a PFA tolerance or if the residue
is in excess of an established tolerance but at the same time the logic
of science in many decisions regarding permitted use of food additives
is missing. Various food agencies in India are not clear about how to
use existing food safety and environmental laws to regulate plants,
animals and foods that are the results of biotechnology and so-called
novel products. Role of existing food laws and implementing regulations
The three
branches of Government -
legislative, executive and judicial - all have roles to ensure
the safety of food supply in India. Parliament enacts statutes designed
to ensure the safety of the food supply and that establishes the nation's
level of protection. The executive departments and agencies are responsible
for implementation of food laws and may do so by promulgating regulations,
which the Government of India publishes in the Official Gazette and
which are now also electronically available. The characteristics of
the Indian food safety system are not effective in separation of regulatory
powers and science-based decision-making because the representative
of the science and regulators of the law are directly under Government
and as a protocol, generally they do not go against.
