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“For any violation strict action will be taken”
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Monday, 03 April, 2023, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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G Kamala Vardhana Rao has recently taken over as CEO of the apex food regulator, FSSAI. As subjects like vegan food, front of the pack labelling will be decided this year, He spoke with Ashwani Maindola on his priorities and way forward. Excerpts:
As you have recently joined FSSAI, what are your priorities as CEO of the organisation?
As a regulator our job is to make standards and ensure that standards are not violated. There are certain provisions that even provide punishment for the violations like providing unsafe or adulterated food or misleading labels etc. Any regulators’ business is to see that standards are strictly followed. For any violation strict action will be taken.
As regards to standards formation, we do talk to industry and stakeholders, bring them to the table and after that a whole process is involved in standards' making and once it is finalised, then everybody has to follow them.
How are you planning to strengthen the food safety ecosystem?
We have presently more than 700 accredited labs across the country. These labs are with several organisations wherein 232 labs are FSSAI notified (private and state owned) & 145 mobile labs are functional. We are planning to introduce 150 mobile labs in the coming years.
As regards to manpower, we are trying to enhance our staff across the country, as well.
Apart from this, generating awareness is the key. We are constantly talking with the stakeholders. Recently we held talks with merchants’ associations in Delhi’s various markets and bus terminals and discussed subjects like sanitation, quality of food & storage and hygiene etc. We are discussing people in other parts of the country as well.
Several new kinds of products are coming into the market like vegan meat. How FSSAI is working to ensure standards for these kinds of products?
FSSAI is working on several standards. The scientific panels & committees are working on them. Even the new kind of products like vegan meat or milk etc. the food authority is working. However, the nomenclature ‘vegan meat’ itself is wrong. Vegan is from vegetable, plant based. Recently we have issued a notice with respect to the claim about vegan ghee (in its notice the FSSAI has asked the state food safety commissioners to check the labels of products being manufactured and sold as butter or ghee having plant origins and initiate enforcement actions against such FBOs. The food authority has issued a direction after receiving complaints about plant-based non-dairy products being sold as butter or ghee on e-commerce platforms and in markets).
So if somebody is claiming a product as meat which is plant sourced, is wrong.
There are discussions on 'front of the pack labelling & star rating'. How much progress was made on this subject?
We are holding meetings with the stakeholders including institutions like ICMR and Nutrition Institute of India, industry associations like FICCI and CII. In response to the draft in front of the pack labelling with respect to ‘health star ratings’, we have received around 11,000 responses from the stakeholders including MSMEs, NGOs and industry associations.
We are examining the comments and suggestions. We have received several suggestions about the front of the pack labelling on how we should go about labelling the food high on fat, salt & sugar. And based on discussions, the most acceptable alternatives on which everybody will agree based on true consensus will be accepted.
The discussion is on, and FSSAI is ready to do more discussion on the subject, as we are examining the 11,000 responses that we got against the draft.
How is FSSAI ensuring ease of doing business?
Our IT system is robust and we have 42 lakh FBOs registered at state level and around 10 lakh at Central level. This was achieved through FoSCoS. Plus we have INFoLNET where all the labs are connected and results are visible on the network live. We would like to streamline and upgrade these tools further besides adding others. We are also working on how we can reach people more efficiently using such technologies.
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