George Cheriyan

We speak to George Cheriyan, the honorary working president of the Consumers Protection Association (CPA). Cheriyan is also a part of an eight-member panel known as the Central Advisory Committee for the FSSAI, which monitors meetings with the state food safety commissioners of all states to keep a track on developments and innovations.

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The finger is said to be of an employee of the ice cream company 

‘Hairnets, trimmed nails, no nail polish are a must in packaging units’

The Food Safety and Standards (FSS) was a big game changer in the country and the act itself came into existence way back in 2006. Until then, since Independence, there were numerous laws and acts dealing with the food sector. It also established a national regulatory body, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), to develop science-based standards for food and to regulate/monitor the manufacture, processing, storage, distribution, sale and import of food, so as to ensure the availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption in our country.  The FSSAI brought everything together under one umbrella and consolidated all laws related to food and initiated harmonisation of India’s food regulations as per international standards. The authority shoulders a huge responsibility and is empowered to monitor packed food commodities. The FSSAI also has guidelines and training programme for the street vendors, including ensuring they wear hairnets and coats. 

With packaged food, the body identifies them as—Food Business Operators (FBOs) for both packaged and street food.

If we look at the finger in the ice cream case, there are clear FSSAIguidelines as well as a handbook about how to handle food packaging. Some SOPs for example are that you need to have your head covered with a hairnet, as well as a dedicated uniform that is compulsory for the room where the food is stored or processed. During manufacturing, for example, a golden rule is that your nails need to be trimmed and you cannot have any nail varnish on them. There is also a restriction on the use of mobile phones in food storage areas—this is because you cannot take calls and then resume your work by touching the food with the same hand.

The next line of quality check is that the Food Safety Officer (FSO) has to visit FBOs and their places and see how the food packaging is happening, but here lies the challenge—most states are running under capacity. In the state of Maharashtra, there need to be at least 350 food safety officers at least but it is nowhere close to that number. While the FSSAI’s chief executive officer position is held by an IAS officer, we need a dedicated food safety commissioner in each state so that they are more proactive.

The FSSAI though has no control over the food distribution platforms/apps. In that case, we have to go to the district consumer fora or state/national consumer dispute redressal commissions to ask for an intervention. The biggest issue is that many states are showing a lack of commitment and initiative to make sure that they fill the vacancies in their food safety department and don’t leave them vacant for too long. The state has to make it an issue that they want to talk about.